Matt Williams currently serves as the Senior Director of National Advocacy and Partnerships for KnowledgeWorks Foundation. In this role, he is responsible for directing both federal and state relations on behalf of the Foundation. Matt assists the various divisions, subsidiaries, and major investments of KnowledgeWorks in building and maintaining relationships to advance their initiatives and also assists in advancing policy priorities for the Foundation. In addition to these duties, Matt directs the Foundation’s strategic college affordability projects through its subsidiary, Student Lending Works.

Prior to his current role, Matt served as Director of Public Affairs and was responsible for directing both federal and state relations on behalf of the Foundation.  Matt joined the Foundation, in 2006, as a Program Officer in college and career access, providing leadership for the national community college initiative Achieving the Dream, P-16, and other college and career access programming. He is the former Director for GEAR UP Waco a comprehensive, collaborative grant project focused on increasing college access in Waco, Texas. In addition, Matt was an instructor in the Civic Education Department at Baylor University.

Matt earned a B.A. in History from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a M.S. in Education from Baylor University.

He currently serves on the national board for the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. He has served on the Texas Governor’s Advisory Council for Mentoring, as well as advisory councils on after-school programming for the National Mentoring Partnership and the National League of Cities, and has worked on advocacy initiatives with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships.