Alum receives White House honor

The White House recently recognized Doug Matthews, ‘95, a graduate of the journalism program, as a champion of local innovation. Each year, the White House honors 13 local innovation champions of change for their commitment to creating a more open and innovative government through entrepreneurship. 

Matthews has spent the last 18 years working to improve local government’s connections with their communities. He worked in communications positions for three Florida communities before going to Austin, TX 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 the non-profit, 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 Austin City Manager’s Office.