Owen Matson, Ph.D.

I came to education through experience, not entitlement—starting at a community college and later earning a Ph.D. from Princeton, where I was awarded the Whiting Fellowship for Distinguished Work in the Humanities. My work has always explored how media and technology shape cognition, authorship, and pedagogy—research I continued as a Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Pedagogy at Georgia Tech, where I joined EdTech research with real-world classroom design.

I’ve worked in educational technology since the early 2000s, long before it was widely recognized as “EdTech.” My work blends systems thinking, networked cognition, and inclusive design—bringing academic rigor into scalable, equity-focused platforms. I’ve led education product strategy and learning experience design at the intersection of UX, pedagogy, and content—developing AI-integrated frameworks, SEL-centered tools, and professional learning experiences for real classrooms.

Alongside 15 years of teaching experience across K–12, community college, and university levels, I’ve spent the past decade leading content and product strategy in fast-scaling business environments. I've managed direct reports in content, marketing, and UX; built contributor networks of 200+ specialists; and developed platform-integrated instructional systems serving millions of users. I’ve created scalable content ecosystems and led cross-functional teams across education, pharma, AV, food manufacturing, and design—producing everything from blogs and white papers to instructional video series, product webpages, and multimedia course design.

I specialize in translating complexity into story, aligning instructional integrity with product and business outcomes, and designing learning systems that scale across modalities and users. My approach is shaped by a lifelong commitment to pedagogy, a deep respect for the complexity of learning, and a belief that education products should reflect the minds they serve.