Co-Director of the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative
Center for Applied Research on Work
Overview
Matt is Director of the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI) and a Senior Researcher at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability (YTI). Matt's research focuses on career pathways for youth with disabilities and barriers to employment, such as justice involvement. At Cornell, Matt teaches undergraduate courses in the disability studies and a course in the Government Department on mass incarceration in the United States. Matt is Principal Investigator (PI) on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's funded project "Improving Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes for Out-of-School Youth Involved in the Justice and/or Foster Care Systems" and PI on a pilot program called “Pro Se: Empowering Justice-Involved Youth and Young Adults through Speech, Debate, and Self-Advocacy Training,” which provides virtual certificate program in “Speech and Debate” to justice-involved youth, offered by Cornell undergraduate students. Matt was 2021 recipient of the Cornell ILR Engaged Learning Teaching Award, and was a 2015-16 Fulbright Scholar in Barbados through the U.S. Department of State.