"The key to making a good business decision is finding the right questions to ask."
Jamie Matthews
Credentials:
- Director of Development for LEAD (Letting Everyone Achieve Dreams)
- Owner and Principal in real estate transactions totaling over $29 million in Texas, Colorado, and California
- Co-founder of The Tecumseh Foundation, a Texas based foundation that supports a wide variety of charities, scholarship programs, and non-profits
- MBA, Acton; MBA, National University (California); B.A., psychology, Vanderbilt University
Jamie learned how to search for the right questions as member of the first class of Acton Scholars. Shortly after graduation, he joined forces with former classmate Carter Higley and Carter's wife, Jamil Mullen, to establish LEAD (Letting Everyone Achieve Dreams). LEAD is a non-profit that takes inner-city children to summer wilderness programs in Wyoming. To be allowed to come back to camp the following year, each child must maintain good grades during the year, participate in volunteer projects in his or her own neighborhood, and recruit new students for the program. Besides recruiting the first class of 16 campers, Jamie raised funds for the organization and chaperoned the campers during the summer.
In addition to his work with LEAD, Jamie continues his business in commercial and residential real estate. He is also the first Acton alumnus to become a practitioner with the program.
Jamie explains his reasons for wanting to return to Acton as a teacher: "I believe that there are three things I can do in any one day to make that day purposeful and rewarding: spend time with those that I love, pursue predetermined goals and self-knowledge, and give back to my community. Teaching is one of the few activities I can think of that addresses all three. I fully expect to learn more from the students than they could ever learn from me."
