Meet Matty
Matty Lazo-Chadderton was born and raised in Lima, Peru. The oldest of five children, the values of community service, education and the arts were instilled in her at an early age.
Following in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother and mother, Matty became an elementary school teacher, after earning a degree in elementary education from the National Women Pedagogic Institute and a graduate degree from the Doctoral Faculty of Sciences of Pedagogy at the National University of Education in Lima, Peru.
She later moved to Caracas, Venezuela, where she worked as a corporate executive for MAI de Venezuela, Inc., and co-founded her own art gallery in the Dominican Republic before settling with her family in North Carolina, in search for better services for autism, for her son, David.
Matty's Work
Matty has continued her involvement with disability advocacy organizations, going through intensive training in regular and special education, and early intervention and working as a multicultural consultant for Hispanic families and children with and without disabilities. Her early work on behalf of the Families Durham Interagency and the NC Justice Center later informed her role as the first Hispanic woman lobbyist for the North Carolina General Assembly for educational issues.
During the past 20 years, Matty has continued her work on behalf of the North Carolina community, working as the Director of Hispanic and Latino Affairs for the President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate, from 2001 to 2011. During 2011, she worked as the Outreach Consultant at the Joint Redistricting Committee, NC General Assembly. Then she became the Institutional Public Affairs Officer for the Consulate General of Mexico in Raleigh. In 2012 became the Director of Hispanic and Latino Affairs for the Governor of North Carolina.
Currently, she is the Managing Partner for Lazo-Chadderton, LLC, and in addition to a host of boards and task forces, she also serves on the Executive Board for the North Carolina Public Schools Forum, the Board of NC Early Childhood Foundation, Organization for Women in International Trade - Greater Triangle (OWIT-GT), Latin American Economic Development Corporation; NC State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Chair.
Among her many public service accomplishments, Matty has participated and served on numerous boards, committees and fellowships, including: the Early Childhood Leadership Development Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, The Institute for Educational Leadership Fellowship, and The Institute of Political Leadership Fellowship at UNC-Wilmington, Burroughs Wellcome Science Enrichment Fund Advisory Committee, North Carolina Center for International Understanding. Additionally, she has worked with the Closing the Achievement Gap Task Force for the Department of Public Instruction, The North Carolina Community Colleges Basic Skills/Literacy Task Force, the North Carolina Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities – Hispanic Health Task Force and The Institute of Medicine - Latino Health Task Force. In 2000, the North Carolina Governor appointed her to The North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities, and in 2004, she was reappointed.
She lives in Cary, NC, and has two adult sons: David of Cary, and Andrew and his wife Daphne of Matthews.