Matt Stempeck

Matt Stempeck is a writer, researcher, technologist, and activist. He’s been building the field of what we call civic technology since 2005. Matt’s experience spans tiny non-profits, big tech platforms, academia, journalism, and history-shaping campaigns.

Matt curates the Civic Tech Field Guide, the most comprehensive collection of democracy tech projects in the world. And he’s Technologist in Residence at Cornell Tech, where he organizes the Siegel PiTech Impact Fellowship, embedding highly technical PhD students with public interest organizations across sectors.

In 2016, Matt led the Digital Mobilization team at Hillary for America, which included running the campaign’s organizing, registration, and messaging technologies and programs. Matt served as Director of Civic Technology at Microsoft in New York City, establishing strategic partnerships and re-orienting the company’s public sector efforts for the participatory era.

Education-wise, Matt became / earned a Master of Science at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media. While at the Media Lab, he quantified global media attention to stories like Trayvon Martin’s, designed a peer-to-peer humanitarian aid marketplace, and built an award-winning product to fight misinformation online way back in 2013. Matt also holds a Bachelor of Arts with high honors from the University of Maryland College Park, where he wrote his undergraduate thesis on the disruption participatory media brought to political journalism.

Originally from Boston, Matt’s now based in Lisbon, Portugal, where he plays Padel, stretches the limits of his high-school Spanish, and works on engagement projects with a creative collective appropriately known as the Bad Idea Factory. Matt will happily geek out with you about travel, health, and obscure historical moments.