Matt Schuster

Matt Schuster is a community media executive whose career has moved across government access, public access, and nonprofit community media leadership in the Midwest and on the California coast. He earned a BA in Broadcast and Cable Production and Environmental Studies from Western Michigan University and an MA from Michigan State University, and began his career in government television at HOM-TV, Meridian Township's government access channel in Michigan. He went on to serve as Cable TV Coordinator for Lake County, Illinois, and then as Multimedia Services Supervisor for Louisville Metro Government, where he led MetroTV to repeated recognition for Overall Excellence in Government Programming.

From Louisville he moved to Santa Barbara, where he spent approximately five and a half years as Executive Director of TV Santa Barbara, leading public and educational access work on California's Central Coast. While there he also earned a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from Fielding Graduate University. He served on the ACM national board from 2004 to 2010, and in 2013 received the ACM's Sue Miller Buske Leadership Award. He then returned to Michigan to become Executive Director of Public Media Network in Kalamazoo, where he has continued work in civic storytelling, local journalism, digital distribution, and building sustainable community media models for the greater Kalamazoo area. Under his leadership, PMN has received ACM Hometown Media Awards for its programming.

His career reflects a generation of community media professionals who moved fluidly between government access operations, public access leadership, and broader nonprofit media work - building practical expertise in production, policy, and organizational development across multiple markets and institutional contexts.