What’s different about the greatest leaders, teachers and coaches? At the foundation, it’s talent. In this session, you’ll learn more about what talent is, how it can be identified and developed in your staff and students, and how it can transform your teams.
Matt Munson
Regional Client Partner Development Coach
Throughout a career spanning over 25 years, Matt Munson has been passionate about the development of people, culture, and teams to help others experience radical life change and achieve new levels of success. In a new chapter of life, Matt has joined the Humanex Ventures as a Regional Client Partner Development Coach, with a heavy focus on the Great Lakes area.
For nearly 13 years, Matt served as an Executive Pastor at Valley Family Church, a multi-generational megachurch in Kalamazoo, MI making both a local and global impact. Highly regarded throughout the Kalamazoo community for his ability to build and activate teams, he led multiple large-scale outreach endeavors to impact others for the greater good. Most notably, Matt directly oversaw the launch and implementation of a weekly food pantry, which in his tenure distributed over 3.5 million meals worth of food to hungry and hurting people across Southwest Michigan. In addition, he led the development of outreach programs that distributed over 4,100 back-to-school backpacks for kids, as well as an initiative that repaired and donated reliable used vehicles to families in need.
A coach at heart, Matt spent the first half of his professional career as a collegiate track and field coach in programs ranging from NCAA Division I to local high school levels. Matt became the youngest head coach in the country when he was named the Head Men’s & Women’s Coach at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. While at EMU, he connected with two Kenyan elite-level athletes and assisted with the development of the 400m hurdles Kenyan national champion. After three transformational years, he moved to world-renowned Columbia University as an assistant coach before returning south as an assistant coach at East Carolina University. Nine months later, Matt once again found himself among the youngest head coaches in the country, taking the helm as Head Coach of the East Carolina Women’s Track & Field Team.
In his first season leading the Pirates, the team claimed their first-ever conference title in winning the Colonial Athletic Association, also earning Matt the distinction as the conference’s Coach of the Year. Over the ensuing five years, Matt helped ECU make the successful transition to the highly competitive Conference USA before moving to Michigan. Across his various coaching stops, Matt’s student-athletes have earned three NCAA All-American Awards, 26 NCAA post-season qualifiers, 20 conference champions, and 114 all-conference performers.
A charismatic and inspirational speaker, Matt has presented at multiple conferences around the country as well as regularly from the ministry platform. Also, among distinction, he has taught a variety of classes at multiple institutions, including Eastern Mennonite University, Columbia University, East Carolina University, and Western Michigan University.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bridgewater College and a Master of Science from James Madison University. He and his wife, Colleen, are the proud parents of Jacob and Bryn, and reside in Portage, MI.