Speakers

Matthew Nims is a Deputy Assistant to the Administrator of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), the U.S. Government lead for international disaster response. With a mandate to save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the impact of disasters, BHA monitors, mitigates, and responds to global hazards and humanitarian needs. The Bureau also promotes resilience by preparing communities for disasters before they strike, and by helping people recover and move beyond crises.

Prior to the establishment of BHA, Matthew Nims served as the Deputy Director of USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP), and before that, as FFP Acting Director from January 2017 to October 2018. In 2018, he was a finalist for the Sammies People's Choice Award, held every year by the Partnership for Public Service for outstanding public service, for leading USAID’s response in providing emergency food assistance to 20 million people in countries fighting famine that year.

Mr. Nims has over 20 years of international development and emergency programming experience, and has been with USAID since 2000. His career with USAID began in Indonesia, where he worked for three and a half years managing and overseeing development and emergency food assistance programs. He then served in Washington, D.C. for four years backstopping Asia and Latin America for the USAID Office of Food for Peace, responding to the Tsunami in Asia as well as several cyclones and other disasters.

Mr. Nims also worked on a broad portfolio of health and HIV prevention programs in Guyana for a year, followed by another year posting in Afghanistan managing energy and water infrastructure creation programs.

Mr. Nims was a Water and Sanitation Technician in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps and has a Master’s Degree in International Public Health from Emory University.