Areas of Expertise:

Dr. Matthew Garcia is a current AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow placed at the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) where he works on Education and Workforce Training initiatives. Prior to starting his fellowship, he was a postdoctoral research associate at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He obtained his B.S. in Biology with Honors from the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, and his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology from the University Of Kentucky College Of Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky. While at the University of Kentucky, he was actively involved in programs and initiatives aimed at increasing involvement of underrepresented populations in biomedical research, acting as a graduate student recruiter and participating in several key university committees helping to identify methods to increase minority graduate student enrollment. During his time at St. Jude, he has served on the postdoctoral council as the vice chair for national outreach, and as vice chair for volunteer services. As the head of national outreach, he worked to keep the postdoctoral community informed of pertinent issues involving science and public policy while advocating for scientists to play a larger role in becoming “citizen scientists” and bridge the gap between scientists and the community. While in Memphis he founded the “Art of Science Memphis” collaboration which uses the medium of art to communicate in a unique manner the science behind biomedical research. As a fellow at DOE, EERE, he works to promote energy literacy and to increase opportunities for training and workforce development in energy careers. As part of his efforts, Matt coordinates the Energy 101 initiative – an effort to support the creation of an interdisciplinary, systems based, undergraduate energy course. Matt also helps supports the National Training and Education Resource (NTER) platform – a free open source solution to creating and distributing workforce development, training, and education content online.