Matthew “Mista” Ruddy
Matthew Ruddy (MS Ed) is a consultant with more than 20 years of experience in education and community development; ranging from K-12 classrooms in diverse neighborhoods, graduate school teaching candidates, workshops, conferences, and building equity within teams and organizations. He focuses on helping clients build diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies into their work in meaningful and practical ways that bring growth and better decision-making. Matt emphasizes the benefits of critical thinking, collective problem solving, and values collaboration as a key ingredient to collective improvement.
Along with his professional expertise, Matthew has the lived experience of growing up in a widely diverse, multi-ethnic family of 6, who often found themselves piling into their old Ford Econoline for summer camping trips and adventures. He builds upon this personal experience and his passion for the outdoors to support more holistic approaches by leadership teams. He believes in dignity and decency everyone deserves the right to be seen and heard.
Matt brings a down-to-earth sensibility to any conversation. He draws wisdom from past professional experiences including creating an instrumental music program for a diverse community of students on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to spending years on the road as a tour and production manager for bands and musicians, traveling throughout 17 different countries. His resume includes building impactful literacy programming for Portland YouthBuilders and serving as a legislative consultant for Culturally Responsive Practice.
In addition to his consultancy, Matthew also serves as an adjunct instructor in the Graduate Teacher Education Program at Portland State University, with classes and coursework focused on Equity and Social Justice.
In each of his career roles, his primary focus on equity, and the value of collaboration has been a key ingredient to collective improvement.