David DeMatthews

Headshot of  David E DeMatthews
Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
W.K. Kellogg Endowed Professorship, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
W. K. Kellogg Professorship of Community College Leadership (Holder)

Phone: +1 512 232 2413
Email: ddematthews@austin.utexas.edu
Office: SZB 3.714J
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David DeMatthews is the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the founder of the Texas Education Leadership Lab and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Special Education. He is also the director of the Cooperative Superintendency Program. Prior to arriving at UT Austin in 2018, DeMatthews was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. He began his career in education working as a teacher, campus leader and district administrator in Baltimore City Public Schools and the District of Columbia Public Schools.

DeMatthews' research primarily focuses on district and school leadership. More specifically, he aims to understand how educational leaders create and sustain schools where all students are present, meaningfully engaged, and achieving at high levels, with a specific focus on students with disabilities. Given the importance of stable district and school leadership to school improvement processes, he has also cultivated a stream of research focused on superintendent and principal career pathways, job-related stress and burnout, and turnover. DeMatthews has also examined the impact of school choice policies on public schools and historically marginalized students.

He has published nearly 100 peer reviewed journal articles. In addition, he has authored numerous book chapters in edited volumes, research reports, policy briefs, and editorials in media outlets. DeMatthews' research has been published in leading research journals, including Educational Researcher, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, AERA Open, Teachers College Record, Elementary School Journal, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Educational Policy, Journal of Educational Administration, and Urban Education. DeMatthews authored or edited five books, including Community Engaged Leadership for Social Justice: A Critical Approach in Urban Schools with Routledge. DeMatthews is the lead author on the Inclusive Principal Leadership Innovation Configuration, an evidenced-based guidance document developed to improve principal leadership in the area of special education and supporting students with disabilities that has been adopted by dozens of university-based principal preparation programs across the nation.

DeMatthews' work and ideas have been featured in prominent media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, Associated Press, ProPublica, ABC News, Education Week, The Hill, The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, and other regional outlets. He regularly appears as a commentator on public education policy issues in national and regional media outlets, especially in Texas on topics related to special education, principal and teacher workforce, school choice and vouchers, and school safety.

DeMatthews has received numerous honors and awards within the field of education. In 2025, he received the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award. In 2021, he served as president of the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA), which is a consortium of over 115 higher education institutions focused on improving the preparation and practice of educational leaders. DeMatthews also served as chair of the AERA Leadership for School Improvement Special Interest Group (2020-2021). In 2017, he received the UCEA Jack A. Culbertson Award, which is given annually to an outstanding junior educational leadership professor in recognition of significant contributions to the field of educational leadership. He also received the 2018 William J. Davis Award for the most outstanding article to appear in Educational Administration Quarterly (the top journal in the field of educational administration and leadership) and the 2017 Paula Silver Case Award for the most outstanding article in the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. Dr. DeMatthews also has served on committees to support the development of national educational leadership standards and efforts to enhance how states and universities improve educator preparation.

DeMatthews' doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows have gone on to assume tenure-line faculty and research positions at many universities, including Stanford University, Michigan State University, Sam Houston State University, St. John's University (Queens, NY), and Auburn University. His former students also serve as superintendents, chief academic officers, directors of special education, and principals in many districts throughout Texas and across the nation.