About me
Matt Niksch builds technology and data systems for education non-profits — scholarship platforms, program operations, data visualization infrastructure, and the AI-powered tools that make them smarter. As an independent consultant and fractional CTO, he helps organizations replace manual processes with purpose-built software, turn messy data into usable insight, and apply large language models to work that used to take hundreds of staff hours (like reviewing thousands of text entries against rubrics or extracting important details from university-provided documents).
From 2012 to 2022, Matt spent a decade at Noble Schools in Chicago, the last three years as President. He led Noble’s support team across finance, operations, data, academics, and college success, with particular focus on equitable outcomes and Noble’s goal of 75% bachelor’s degree completion among alumni. He assumed the presidency after seven years as founding Chief College Officer, where his data-driven approach to college counseling and alumni persistence was nationally recognized and profiled in Richard Whitmire’s book The B.A. Breakthrough.
Matt also created and taught a graduate course on education policy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Prior to Noble, he was Director of the College Completion Initiative at the KIPP Foundation, a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and an aerospace and systems engineer at Lockheed Martin. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an M.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech, and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and aerospace engineering from Purdue University.
From June 2022 through May 2023, Matt and his wife took their three children on a homeschooling journey around the world, visiting 51 countries. You can read more at kidsoncamels.com.
Note: this site hosts a wide range of posts since 2006. For a more personal introduction, please click here. For more of those earlier posts, click on the links above or to the right.
