Matthew De Galan

Matthew De Galan leads the Carter Center’s global effort to share its stories and impact with key audiences, using communications as a strategic tool to drive change.  

He joined The Carter Center in 2022 as the organization’s first Vice President of Communications. In his tenure, he has significantly expanded strategic communications efforts at the Center, delivering four-fold increases in social media engagement and media coverage. He directed the complex communications response to the passing of the First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 2023 and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 2024.

De Galan also has increased the use of video as a storytelling tool and earned an Emmy Award for Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song, a 90-minute television special that aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting and PBS. He also helped complete and secure distribution deals for The President and the Dragon, a documentary about President Carter’s work to eradicate Guinea worm disease that is streaming on Amazon and other platforms.

Before coming to the Center, De Galan served in senior leadership roles at the United Nations, the NIKE Foundation, Mercy Corps, CARE, and Girl Effect, a London-based NGO. 

At the U.N., De Galan led external relations for the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, which coordinates efforts across U.N. agencies, NGOs, and governments to protect children from violence. At the NIKE Foundation, he developed campaigns that elevated adolescent girls on the global agenda and managed a $120 million grant portfolio that pioneered new strategies to support girl-centered grassroots organizations.

At Mercy Corps, he served as senior vice president and helped the agency grow from $30 million to $300 million over nine years. In 2007, he helped initiate Mercy Corps’ work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

De Galan began his career as a journalist for the Kansas City Star. He has authored five books and four documentary films, including the 2004 documentary The Last Child: The Global Race to End Polio, which appeared on PBS.

De Galan attended the University of Kansas and the Université de Bordeaux, earning degrees in Journalism and French. He also attended the Harvard Business School’s Humanitarian Leadership Program.