Biography

Matthea Marquart is a social worker, leader, educator, and online education expert. She is the Assistant Dean of Online Education at Columbia University’s School of Social Work (CSSW), where she leads a team responsible for implementing Columbia’s online Master’s of Science in Social Work program.  A CSSW alumna, instructor, and administrator, she has supported the School’s online MSSW program from initial course pilots and instructor training through program launch and expansion. She teaches in CSSW’s management program, preparing a new wave of nonprofit and human services leaders; courses taught include Workers and the Workplace, Fundraising & Development, Macro Community Practice, Motivational Interviewing Skills-Based Lab, Human Behavior in the Social Environment B: Racial Identity Development, and Staff Development, Training, and Mentoring.

Ms. Marquart created and co-facilitates CSSW’s intensive Institute on Pedagogy and Technology for Online Courses, which has provided over 300 graduates with a foundation of skills and knowledge for quality online instruction, and which has been recognized with awards from the United States Distance Learning Association, the University Professional Continuing Education Association, and the International E-Learning Association.  

Ms. Marquart has held director-level roles managing departments, budgets, and teams since 2000. She previously served as the National Director of Training at Building Educated Leaders for Life, where she launched an award-winning blended e-learning and in-person training. She also served as President of the NYC Chapter of the National Organization for Women, where she was the first woman of color to hold the top role, and as Director of Foundation and Government Relations at the environmental research organization Inform, Inc.  Prior to moving to New York City in 1999, she worked in England, Spain, and South Korea. 

As a lifelong learner, Ms. Marquart has participated in extensive ongoing leadership development.  She has been a member of the Community Resources Exchange Leadership Caucus for Early Career Executive Directors, a member of the Online Learning Consortium’s Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning, a Network for Social Work Management Policy Fellow, a blogger for New York Nonprofit Press, and a member of the 2019-20 cohort of the Council on Social Work Education’s Program Directors Academy. She publishes and presents regularly on topics related to education, leadership, and training.  

Ms. Marquart holds a BA in English from Emory University, and an MSSW from the Columbia University School of Social Work. She is currently enrolled in the Master’s of Science in Bioethics program at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. Her additional coursework includes a United Way of NYC Senior Fellowship in the Nonprofit Leadership Development Institute at Baruch College, where she took Executive MPA courses with a cohort of nonprofit leaders, and a Business Certificate from Columbia University, completed by taking online courses. She is honored to have been recognized by the Council on Social Work Education’s Women’s Council as a Feminist Mentor, and by the Network for Social Work Management with an Exemplar Award for exemplary performance and leadership as a social work executive leader.