Justin H. Matthews, M.Ed.

Mr. Justin Matthews has served as a public-school educator in the southeastern United States for the past twenty-six years. He has held the positions of CEO/Executive Director, Region Director, Founding K-12 Principal, Chief of Operations, Principal, and Assistant Principal, while also serving as an elementary and high school teacher prior to obtaining his first school leadership position.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Matthews has been directly responsible for the successful development of dozens of charter schools, including construction of over three million square feet of charter school facilities, incorporating numerous gymnasiums, sports fields, cafeterias, playgrounds and other similar educational developments. These projects are valued at well over three hundred million dollars and have included many different financing strategies/products/solutions: most recently a debt private placement sale/leaseback of Carbon Valley Academy valued at over seven million, a single investor purchase and expansion for Kestrel Heights Charter School totaling over twenty million dollars, a portfolio transaction that included a fifty-one million dollar facility acquisition for Avant Garde Academy, a forty-four million dollar unrated set of public debt offerings for a multiple school site acquisition and expansion for Alliance Preparatory Schools INC, and a forty-two million dollar investment grade rated public offering for the refinance and expansion of Mountain Island Charter School.

Mr. Matthews works nationally with multiple schools across several states through his 501c3 Non-Profit Charter School Support Organization Alliance Education Services, and with Cognia as a Lead External Review Evaluator. He was the 2010 National Innovation Principal of the year. Schools under his leadership have won numerous national awards in the areas of academics, parent choice, school culture, and operations.