Click Here To Listen Nashville Business 100 Leading African Americans Lonnell Matthews
Lonnell Matthews, Jr. is the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods & Community Engagement (ONCE) for Mayor Megan Barry. Matthews is a proud alumnus of Tennessee State University where he studied Accounting & Business Law. Before joining Mayor Barry’s office, Lonnell served as an employee of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee for 15 years, from 2000-2015, most recently in the role of District Executive Director of Youth Outreach. Matthews led Y-CAP, Black Achievers, Latino Achievers, NAZA Z and Fun Company programs during his time at the YMCA. In 2007, at age 27, Lonnell Matthews, Jr. became the youngest African-American elected to Nashville’s Metro Council, representing District 1. His leadership roles during the 8 years he served on the Metro Council included Speaker Pro Tempore, as well as chairing the budget & finance, education and parks & recreation committees. Some of the legislation that Lonnell sponsored while on the Metro Council includes the Procurement Nondisrimination Program legislation, the Small Business Incentive legislation and the Domestic Partners Benefits legislation. Mayor Barry appointed Lonnell to her administration in October 2015. As Director of ONCE, Lonnell has coordinated the Mayor’s Youth Violence Summit, Race Equity and Leadership (R.E.A.L.) dialogues, the Mayor’s Spring and Fall Clean Beautification Initiatives, Metro Night Out events and the Mayor’s Office Shop Talks. Matthews also led the project team for Nashville’s 3-1-1 reboot, hubNashville; authored Metro’s Youth Violence Reduction Report and Strategy; coordinated the Community Advisory Group to created policy for police body cameras; serves on the steering committee for the Juvenile Restorative Diversion pilot in Davidson County Juvenile Court; and serves on the steering committee for MNPS’s Positive and Safe Schools Achieving Greater Equity (P.A.S.S.A.G.E.) to address school discipline reform and break the school to prison pipeline. Lonnell is husband to Johari Matthews, and father of their two children, Ari and Pilar.
