Dr. Matthew Ladner is a Senior Advisor at the Heritage Foundation and Senior Editor of Next Steps. Previously Ladner served as Director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity at the Arizona Charter Schools Association and Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Koch Institute. Previously, Matthew served as senior advisor for policy at Excel in Ed and vice president of research at the Goldwater Institute. Prior to joining Goldwater, Matthew was director of state projects at the Alliance for School Choice. He has provided invited testimony to Congress, several state legislatures, and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Matthew helped to create the nation’s first K-12 Education Savings Account program in 2011. In 2016, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry recognized Matthew’s work by granting him the organization’s Milton Friedman Award. Matthew is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and received both a master’s and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Houston. He lives in Phoenix with his wife, Anne, and their three children Benjamin, Jacob, and Abigail.