Bio

So who is Matt Hartley, anyway?

I am first and foremost a family man. My wife and children mean the world to me and I spend as much time with them as I can. Two kids are teens and I am not even close to being able to carry them as in the photo at left. And we have added a little guy to the mix, who is now a toddler. From Young Dad to Middle Aged Dad – wiser and tireder! We love movies, books, watching Frozen and Lost together (we have convinced the Toddler that Jack is Olaf), going to the North Carolina Mountains, and finding a good board game like Ticket to Ride. When we’re not doing AP Human Geography or Calculus homework!

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 temporarily 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 Senior Adjunct Faculty in Religious Studies at University of North Florida, usually several sections of Comparative Religion each semester.

In 2024, I began work as Community Coordinator for the Young Adult Transformation Collective, which I have led through the process of incorporating as a nonprofit corporation. We accompany young adults as they discern their futures, rooted in faith and justice, and equip and support the professionals who work with them.

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.”