T-Squared: Matt Ewalt is The Texas Tribune’s new director of events and live journalism

We are thrilled to announce the hiring of Matt Ewalt as The Texas Tribune’s director of events and live journalism.

Matt is currently the vice president for education at the Chautauqua Institution, where he curates and produces programming for one of the oldest and most respected lecture series in the country. He began at Chautauqua in 2006 as the editor for its publication, The Chautauquan Daily, and he held several roles ranging from communications to strategic initiatives before stepping into the VP of education position in 2018. Matt was integral in building program partnerships with the United Nations Foundation and National Geographic, among other entities. And under his leadership, the diversity of the program’s speakers has been greater than at any time in its 145-year history.

Matt spent two years in his early career as a staff writer and news editor at the Warren Times Observer in Pennsylvania. He attended Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in professional writing and a master’s degree in literary and cultural studies. Matt will join us full-time on March 27.

In addition, Ellen Burris will join us in a temporary role (April 1 through November 30) as director of this year’s Texas Tribune Festival. She brings an impressive career in event production, most recently working as events manager for the Beto for Texas gubernatorial campaign. She also spent almost 15 years with SXSW, leading a team of production staffers to produce hundreds of events for the world-renowned conference and festival we all know and love. Ellen holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Along with deputy events director Michele Gonzalez, technical director Rob Avila and audio/visual engineer Chris Svoboda, we’re elated to be moving forward with such a talented and experienced group of events professionals.