Matthew Hanson, CGMS

Matthew brings more than 25 years of progressive experience in government program/grant management, finance, and agency operations at the federal, state, and local levels. He is an industry thought leader focusing on the benefits of centralized approaches to grants management and the use of technology as resource multipliers leveraging his experience from the U.S. Department of Justice along with the State of Arizona, Matt has seen first-hand the efficiencies created through centralizing grants management services. As a result of his experiences during the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Matt lead the establishment of one of the nation's first statewide grants management offices along with the deployment of a statewide enterprise grants management solution.

Before joining Witt O’Brien’s, he served as Arizona's Statewide Grants Administrator as well as Assistant Director of the Arizona Governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting, Economic Recovery Management Team. He supported the state’s response to and recovery from COVID-19 through administration of the CARES Act and other federal programs.

He was fully engaged in stakeholder engagement/outreach, project management, grant management and financial oversight. His analysis of the COVID relief bills were key to developing appropriate programs, workflows, and impactful executive-level briefings to the Governor’s Office and other state leaders. He also created and delivered training to internal staff and external stakeholders.

Matt focuses on the following in his day-to-day efforts with Witt O'Brien's:

Grant management

• Support strategic planning, development and implementation of federally funded grant and assistance programs through grant management best practices and subject matter expertise.
• Provide direct engagement for assigned agencies to augment existing capacity focused on grant management and administration

Organization and coordination

• Support operational leadership and the most senior members of program and state government with organization and operational practice development and implementation.
• Support centralized and localized coordination state/county/city leadership and assigned agencies/departments to foster greater transparency and management of federal assistance programs.