Matt Samson is a San Rafael resident living in Terra Linda with his wife and two daughters, who attend Vallecito Elementary School. He moved to Marin in 1989 and grew up in the Contempo Marin neighborhood where his parents still live. Matt attended Miller Creek Middle School and Terra Linda High School before going to UC Santa Barbara where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography. While at UCSB, he was a member of the men’s varsity water polo team.

Matt currently serves as the Deputy Fire Chief for the South San Francisco Fire Department in San Mateo County. He has spent 23 years in emergency services, beginning in Santa Barbara and continuing as a firefighter with the Marinwood Fire Department and now South San Francisco. Matt has completed the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program where he earned the Manno Award for outstanding research on emerging fire services issues.

Matt focuses his efforts on enhancing local emergency response through regional partnerships and has recently concentrated these efforts on wildfire response in the urban interface by improving evacuation planning and management. He concentrates on collaboration between government agencies and understands the connection between wildfire and water regarding environmental changes experienced over the past decade.