Dave Matter serves as Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications, providing leadership for Mizzou Athletics' communications, creative content and storytelling strategies as a member of the department's Senior Leadership Team. He oversees the Skyward (Creative) and Strategic Communications staffs, directs the department's messaging and public relations efforts, and serves as Mizzou Athletics' spokesperson. Matter also serves as the primary sport administrator for gymnastics, manages the department's Freedom of Information Act requests and hosts the "Mizzou Storytellers" podcast on the Inside Mizzou Athletics podcast network.
The award-winning veteran sportswriter joined the Mizzou Athletics staff as Assistant AD for Communications and Storytelling in Sept. 2023. In the summer of 2024, he was elevated to Associate AD for Strategic Communications. Matter, a Mizzou alum and St. Louis native, came to the department after more than two decades on the Tigers' beat for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Columbia Daily Tribune.
Named the Football Writers Association Steve Ellis Beat Writer of the Year in 2021, Matter's time covering Mizzou Athletics dates to his student days at the University. He has adapted and innovated through his career, turning beat coverage from writing game stories to producing features, analysis pieces, columns, hosting online chats, podcasts and a weekly statewide TV show covering Mizzou Athletics.
Additionally, he served as an adjunct instructor at the MU School of Journalism - teaching an introduction to writing course. While with the Post-Dispatch, Matter revived the paper's campus correspondent's position, giving Mizzou students an opportunity to cover the Tigers while still in school.
Matter has won writing awards in the FWAA Best Writing Contest and in others including Associated Press Sports Editors Top Ten twice and National Sports Media Association three times. He has had three books published, including "The 100-Yard Journey: A Life in Coaching and Battling for the Win" (Triumph Books), co-authored with former Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, whom he covered from 2001 to 2015.
Dave and his wife, Molly, a Columbia native, have three sons, Jackson (16), Connor (16) and William (9).