Matthew S. Tanico joined Yale’s Office of the President in December 2024 as Strategic Project Manager for Presidential Initiatives. In this role, he plans, manages, and executes a variety of strategic initiatives within the President’s Office in support of university-wide priorities across multiple units designed to achieve the university’s mission.
Matthew previously served as Assistant Dean for Graduate Academic Support and Outreach in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2022 to 2024 after serving for one year as Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Life. As an assistant dean, he managed academic processes and policies related to student registration and academic progress, served as a Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Discrimination and Harassment Resource Coordinator, and Health and Safety Leader for the Graduate School, and acted as the Graduate School’s director of communications.
From 2018-2021, Matthew was the Associate Director at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). At RITM, among other things, he helped create the Graduate Fellows program and managed a $4M grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in collaboration with similar academic centers at Brown, the University of Chicago, and Stanford. Prior to his work at RITM, he was a Project Specialist in both the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School Deans’ offices.
Matthew received his PhD in Spanish and Renaissance Studies from Yale University and a BA in Spanish and Italian (summa cum laude) from New York University. In addition to his administrative roles, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at New York University and Yale, focusing on early modern literature and material culture. His scholarly work has been published in Cervantes: Journal of the Cervantes Society of America, Cuadernos hispanoamericanos, and The Literary Encyclopedia.
A resident of New Haven, Matthew also serves on the Board of Directors of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association.