Kathleen Matthews is an award-winning broadcast news journalist, global communications executive, non-profit board member and Democratic Party activist, who has worked in the nation’s capital and the state of Maryland for nearly 50 years.
Growing up in Los Altos, California, Matthews graduated with honors in Communications from Stanford University in 1975, and moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career in journalism. For 30 years, she worked as a producer, reporter and news anchor for WJLA-TV, winning multiple Emmy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow and George Foster Peabody awards, and Washingtonian of the Year for her journalism and contributions to the local community.
In 2006, she joined the senior executive team of Marriott International, based in Bethesda, Maryland, as Executive Vice President for Global Communications and Public Affairs. In that global role, she oversaw the company’s internal and corporate communications, brand public relations, and government affairs and social impact programs, including sustainability and diversity relations.
In 2015, she left Marriott to run for Congress as a Democrat in an open seat for Maryland’s 8th congressional district, where she and her husband have lived for 30 years. Matthews was elected as Maryland Democratic Party Chair and served in that role for two years. She is active in her state and national party, serves on the boards of five non-profits, including the Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital, and Emerge, which recruits and trains Democratic women to run for public office.
She and her husband, author and political commentator Chris Matthews, have 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren.