Matt Healy – MassMEP Employee Highlights
Matt Healy has held a variety of roles at MassMEP over the 15 years that he has been with the organization full time. In the last few years, he has stepped into the role of IT Manager, and more recently Covid Coordinator with Lisa Bouthiller. Matt says “I try to do anything else I can get my hands on. About a year and a half ago the office moved from Worcester to Auburn. I was involved extensively in the move, helped re-establish our IT systems, handled mechanical issues and other tasks that came up. Prior to being IT Manager, I used to help teach the CNC classes that we did with UMASS Lowell and WPI. I was just thinking about how I miss being able to help those people out with training and getting them back into a job. It was very rewarding.”
Matt got his start at MassMEP when he was in high school when he designed one of the organizations first websites. Mat continues, “My grandfather was Jack Healy who was MassMEP’s founding Director, President and CEO. When I was a student at WPI I was in walking distance to MEP, so I started as an intern while I was in college. From there it progressed, and I started full time as a project assistant. One of my first assignments was driving the RV that had been retrofitted for CNC training. I traveled all over New England for 5 or 6 years. I also went to Florida and Missouri. That amount of traveling would be much tougher now that I have a family. Over the course of my 15 years, I’ve done various things from fixing computers, to workforce development training, lean projects and plenty of internal projects like our facility move and coordinating system switches.”
With this varied background, Matt shares that his passion professionally is helping others out. “It’s been instilled in me since I was a little kid – I helped delivering Meals on Wheels and at the Senior Center. As I mentioned, I worked for the workforce department for many years and liked trying to help the people get trained and ultimately find a job. It is very satisfying helping someone better themselves. Now I can do that in my role in IT trying to help people in the company embrace technology and become better at what we can do as a company. I also enjoy streamlining processes and making things easier for everyone. I’ve gotten to do some video editing and marketing in the past year and seeing all that come together is also lots of fun.”
Ask Matt what he likes to do outside of work hours and you’ll discover that he is very outdoorsy. “I love to fish and hunt and be on my boat and jet ski in the summer. I have 2 younger kids, 6 and 8, who love the water so we spend all summer on the lake. I recently got back into water skiing every morning which I love. Although with the lake frozen right now that isn’t happening. But I did play hockey for the first time in about 20 years this winter on the frozen lake. That was fun. Other than that, I love traveling to northern Maine and being in the woods. I am a big fan of the middle of nowhere of Maine, Jackman. That is one of my favorite places in the world. I like being away from it all. No cell phones, and very little people. It is very relaxing and rewarding to be in nature for at least a week per year,” Matt concludes.
How well do you know Matt? Two of these statements are true and one is not. Can you guess which one?
1) When I was in high school, I was a scratch golfer.
2) I have helicopter snowboarded in Whistler British Columbia
3) My number 1 fear in life is riding on a Ferris wheel.