Bio

I am Matt Hartley. I am an Interfaith Educator…

Wait. I already did that. Here’s some other stuff.

As you can see, I’m happily Dad to two wonderful children. We live in Jacksonville, Florida, and entertain ourselves with make believe, tossing frisbee, road trips, impromptu dance parties, and making funny videos. Daughter’s catchphrase: “I love you so much.” Son: “That wasn’t funny.” (It wasn’t.) And last year I got married, and my wife and I just welcomed our newborn son to the world! Young Dad becomes Old Dad.

I graduated in 2005 from University of North Florida in Jacksonville with a Bachelor’s degree in English. We are the Ospreys at UNF and have an undefeated football team on account of not having a football team.

After graduating from UNF, I stayed in town and began careers in both teaching and youth ministry. I taught at Sandalwood High School (2005-2011, 2014-2016) where I was an English teacher, founding teacher of the AVID college preparatory program, and perpetually the teacher most likely to be mistaken for a student.

From 2005 to 2014, I was the Co-Director of the Youth Ministries at South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church. The average stay of a youth minister at one church is about 18 months. So I beat that by a bit. My great achievements there were empowering youth for leadership and surviving 5 church bus breakdowns with teenagers.

My most lucrative accomplishment came in 2015, when I secured a cool $100,000 from Lilly Endowment, Inc. for the Episcopal Diocese of Florida to launch a Christian Interfaith leadership program at UNF, called “Pilgrim Bridge”. I led the program through May 2018, and am very proud, and could bore you significantly here with all the details. It was an honor to train young leaders to grow in their own Christian faith in a way that helps them build bridges of friendship and cooperation with people different from them, especially people of other religions or no religion at all.

My next stop was Christ Episcopal Church in Jacksonville-adjacent Ponte Vedra Beach, from February 2016 to May 2018, as the Director of Young Adult Ministries. I worked with youth, college students, and young adults aged 18-40 throughout my tenure, and eventually became the Chaplain to the Episcopal Campus Ministry at UNF. I collected roles there like some kind of religious Pokemon deck. Sadly, I left before I caught them all.

From 2018 to November 2023, I led the UNF Interfaith Center. Initially, I did so as the Associate Director of the Department of Diversity Initiatives, and if there is a better acronym for me than “ADDDI”, I don’t know it. Eventually, I was promoted, officially, to Director in September 2022. A role I held until the Governor and State Legislature chased me with their anti-DEI laws, which eventually led to the closing of the UNF Interfaith Center. I left before they could squash me. Kind of hurt though!

With help, I managed to shift Interfaith programs for UNF’s campus to OneJax, Inc., where I served as Director of Interfaith Programs from November 2023 to May 2024.

I continue to teach as Adjunct Faculty in Religious Studies at University of North Florida, usually one section of Comparative Religion each semester.

In 2024, I founded the website Faith in Diversity (www.faithindiversity.com), where I write a weekly newsletter with analysis and discussion on the intersections of religion and diversity. Topics range across themes like Interfaith, DEI, ecological, diversity, cosmic diversity (Is that just jargon for me to include my nerdiness about space? You decide), pop culture and religion scholarship, all animated by a commitment to justice, peace and human rights for all. I also feature a monthly Interfaith lectionary companion, based on the Revised Common Lectionary.

What else should you know about me? I’m a cellist. My favorite snack is hot fries and red bull. I used to assistant coach a running team at Sandalwood High School called Marathon High and completed three half marathons (reluctantly). I love Star Wars and Friends and The West Wing and Parks and Recreation. I prefer my coffee black. I love a good book but tend to buy way more than I read. I love movie theaters and musical theatre and outer space.

At heart, I’m still that 5 year old who wants everyone to be friends. Grown up life has complicated that in good ways, as I have learned to seek justice and peace. I walk with the words of Gwendolyn Brooks, “We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”