About Me

Hannah Matthys, Phd.

This work is incredibly personal to me, rooted in my lived experiences and developed through my professional career. As an infant, my white parents adopted me from South Korea, leading me to grow up in a small, rural town in Wisconsin. I was one of a handful of children of color in that predominantly white, farming community, and had to navigate my identity alone. I worked hard in school and became the first to go to college in my family, paying for it through a combination of financial aid, loans, and working odd jobs. Eventually, I went on to earn my PhD, which provided me with an academic foundation in this work.

To add complexity to this experience, I have several Black siblings who have very different outcomes and live very different lives, despite growing up in the same household with the same rules and values. Unlike me, none have graduated college and one doesn’t have a GED.

I was privileged enough to earn my PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I focused on identity development and systemic oppression. This helped me to develop a lens and discover the words to describe the inequities that permeated my existence. Equipped with this knowledge and expertise, my goal now is to provide access to theories and conversations that often live in the world of academia, grounding them in clients' lived experiences and centering them in growth and transformation.

This expertise and experience has been developing over 10 years of teaching and facilitation. I have taught this content at the high school, college, Masters, and PhD levels. I have facilitated and provided keynotes at conferences such as the White Privilege Institute Conference, Teachers of Color and Allies Conference, and the Jeffco Diversity Expo. I have also led this work in school districts, nonprofits, startups, sports organizations, and government agencies.