Matthew A Poland, one of the newest four Board members of The Rebuilding Alliance, graduated from University of Michigan with a degree in Psychology in 2000. He worked with court-adjudicated youth in a medium-secure facility in MI for just under a year before moving to San Francisco, CA in November 2001 and beginning work as a Community Integration Specialist with the Janet Pomeroy Center. This was his first venture into working with people with disabilities and, on a larger scale, with workforce development.
Matt was later promoted to Vocational Counselor in March of 2003 at the Janet Pomeroy Center and spearheaded a project to promote the hiring of persons with disabilities with craigslist, a nationally recognized job classifieds website. In April of 2006, Matt was hired as an Employment Coordinator to help create a new program that would counsel and place individuals with epilepsy in jobs at the California Pacific Medical Center called PEP Jobs.
In addition, Matt has provided training to individuals newly hired in employment services through the JVS BEST Pro program, regularly makes presentations to groups from 10-100 about job accommodations, job search and community services as well as serving on committees and boards dedicated to helping job seekers and improving the outcomes of workforce development such as:
While still at The Janet Pomeroy Center, Matt first became involved with Donna Baranski-Walker and The Rebuilding Alliance when Donna hired one of his clients, Monica Quinn, in 2005. Later, in 2008, he was asked to join the Board to help initiate a training program for persons with disabilities at The Rebuilding Alliance. To Matt’s delight, his Board candidacy was approved on September 7, 2008, along with three other very interesting and talented new individuals.
When not working, Matt enjoys being an amateur musician who plays guitar and drums (former member of a band called Zero Mass), playing Disc Golf, reading about physics and mathematics and finding new tech gadgets to toy with. Perhaps someday, he will also take the plunge into attempting stand-up comedy. Maybe.