Matthew Rector

Matthew Rector is the current Customer Success Manager at VerticalChange. Prior to this, they worked as a Program Manager for Early Care and Education Services at the Santa Barbara County Education Office from January 2018 to January 2020. Before that, they worked as the PFA Program Administrator for First 5 San Francisco from October 2006 to January 2018.

Rector got their start in the field in 1996 when they helped organize and record TANF-active families’ testimony that informed local implementation as an undergraduate at U.C. Santa Cruz. Matthew spent over 6 years in Alternative Payment Program (APP) case management and California State Preschool Program (CSPP) contract and other municipal subsidy administration in Sacramento, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties before joining the First 5 San Francisco team in 2006.

As the PFA Program Administrator, Rector applied a strong emphasis on relationship-based approaches to early childhood education program administration, supporting positive and solutions-driven collaboration between First 5 and its 75+ PFA partner agencies, operating over 150 preschools, on the initiative’s financing, policymaking, and design. After transition of the city-funded PFA intiative to a new administrator in 2016, Matthew stepped into a regional coordinator role in support of the eight-county trainng and technical assistance collaboration funded by First 5 California, continuing in the role until moving their family to Santa Barbara in early-2018.

Matthew Rector's educational career began with him earning their Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Community Studies & Modern Literature. Matthew then went on to Santa Ana College to study Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies. After that, they attended Indiana University Bloomington to study Journalism. Finally, they graduated from Esperanza High School.

Matthew Rector reports to Ann Cowell, Director of Customer Success. They work with Amanda Hsiung - Customer Success Manager, Lauren Kozyra - Customer Success Manager, and Feven Wordofa - Customer Success Manager.