Celebrating a Legend: Musings from Matt Scassero

The University of Maryland (UMD) MATRIX Lab’s fearless leader Matt Scassero is now retired after a dedicated and impactful career spanning military, nonprofit, and academia. He helped grow teams and entire organizations, all while staying connected to his communities.

To recognize all the great work he’s done, the lab hosted a retirement celebration for Matt on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at the USMSM SMART Building.

The event featured thoughtful speeches and gifts from those who knew Matt at various points in his career. Most recently, he served as the Director of Operations and Outreach for the MATRIX Lab.

Darryll Pines, Amitabh Varshney, Norm Wereley, Matt Scassero, Rob Briber, Don Woodbury at F3 Launch

Matt was tasked with heading the lab while serving as the Director of the UMD UAS Research and Operations Center (UROC – then known as the UMD UAS Test Site), which he also helped launch. He says the opportunity to start not just one but two brand-new research centers and work with amazing teams of staff, students, and faculty is among the top highlights of his career, along with the world-changing organ drone delivery in 2019.

On top of his work with UMD, Matt said he’s had the privilege to serve many different communities, including people with disabilities and the nation as a whole as a Naval Flight Officer. He’s honored to have been trusted with leadership responsibilities in some very high-stakes situations.

Matt says all of these opportunities have changed his life, both personally and professionally.

“They reinforced the idea that any individual can contribute whatever they can to a HUGE effort and make an impact, sometimes beyond way above their weight class,” Matt said. “They supported the concept that leadership is not about having brilliant ideas or working more or harder than everyone else… It is about building the best possible team, bringing every possible resource and perspective to the table, and then getting the most out of them by supporting them, removing barriers, and enabling them to bring their best selves to the fight every day.”

When asked what message he had for everyone he’s ever worked with, Matt had this to say:

Matt Scassero at team building activity

“I am definitely one of those people who has ‘not worked a day in his life.’ I have enjoyed every position I have ever held, somewhat due to what I was doing, but always and completely due to who I was doing it with. Whether young Sailors and Marines, dedicated non-profit colleagues, or my UMD Terrapin and community teammates… staff, students, faculty, southern Marylanders… the people are what I miss the most and hope to keep fresh in various ways in my retirement. Having those folks come out from the UMD and Southern Maryland community for my retirement event was a memorable experience for me and my family and meant a lot to me. Thank you!”

In retirement, Matt is staying engaged through projects focused on leadership and community. Friends and colleagues will still be able to find him facilitating an intergroup dialogue course at UMD, developing public services at his alma mater the University of Baltimore, and taking on some leadership projects with Leadership Southern Maryland, including the monthly conversation “Letters from Leaders.” He will also be continuing his work with veterans as a peer mentor and leadership facilitator at the nonprofit Warfighter Advance.

Matt Scassero's family

In his personal life, Matt says he has a lot to look forward to in retirement – especially being close with family. He’ll be spending time with his wife, kids, and their partners. They have plans to visit Ireland and Scotland as well as the recently discovered hometown of the ‘Scasserra’ family in Roccamandolfi, Italy. Matt says he’s traveled a lot with the Navy, but there are some spots he and his family want to get to or go back to under these new circumstances.

“We have a lot of this great nation to see as well. Much of it we have traveled through on orders to our next duty station, but we’ve not had time to enjoy a lot of it,” Matt said. “We have so much to look forward to!”

He also has more time to give to his many hobbies, including fishing, hunting, hiking, boating, cooking, and of course, ice hockey.

To read more about Matt’s retirement celebration, see our next story “Celebrating a Legend: Matt Scassero's Retirement Event.”

Published June 26, 2025