White House Author

Doug Matthews has spent the last 18 years working to improve local government's connections with their communities. A graduate of the University of Central Florida (BA, Journalism) and the University of South Florida (MPA), he worked in communications positions for three Florida communities before venturing to Austin as their Chief Communications Director. In Austin, he has been an active proponent for reinventing community engagement and resident communication, and has been a local champion for realizing new ways to innovate collaboratively with residents and the private sector. This has included launching new open-source tools, opening city data for public and developer use, and forging a strong partnership with Code for America. He hopes to add to the organization's innovation capacity in 2012 with the addition of an Office for Innovation, housed in the City Manager's Office.