The Team

CEO MCR/ Principal Senior Consultant

As the Principal Consultant and Founder & CEO of Matchem Community Revitalization Corporation, I bring a decade of hands-on experience in community development, honed through my tenure as Director of the Evansville, Indiana Promise Zone. My journey has been defined by spearheading housing initiatives, facilitating community betterment projects, and fostering collaborations with diverse government and community-based organizations.

Driven by a fervent passion for community growth and prosperity, I've established Matchem Group/MCR to cultivate synergy in communities worldwide. I firmly believe that sustainable change requires collective effort—a belief encapsulated in the adage, "It takes a village." This philosophy underpins our approach, as we strive to galvanize communities to realize their full potential.

My extensive background in navigating complex, long-term projects, coupled with a nuanced understanding of local issues and resources, positions me to guide both our organization and the communities we serve toward sustainable transformation. Mostly recently helping the City of Evansville Indiana secure the 30 million Promise Neighborhood grant.  Together, we embark on a journey to build vibrant, resilient communities where every voice is heard, and every individual thrives.

Silas holds a bachelor's degree in organizational communication and master's degree in administrative leadership and public administration. He is currently a steering committee member for the Our Places of Impact Community of Practice (CoP) a part of HUD’s focus on supporting community-driven revitalization and the communities undertaking them. In addition, on serving on various boards across the states. 

Senior Consultant/Kentucky Western Region

 I'm a native of Madisonville, and I grew up thinking the motto on the big, blue sign over Noel Avenue was true: "The Best Town on Earth".  After high school, I enlisted in the Army, then I got an ROTC scholarship and went to UK, and eventually graduated from Murray State. Overall, I spent 11 years in the Army Reserves.  I resigned from the Army in order to attend graduate school at the University of Miami, where I received my Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics.  After that, I did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, continuing as research faculty in Neurology, studying spinal cord injury and stem cell transplantation. I left research to teach, joining the Biology faculty at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, where I learned a great deal about teaching and, while working with the local school district, what the real issues are that impact students.  While at UMSL, I began working with the Louis Stokes Midwest Center for Excellence, which is a National Science Foundation-funded program to help recruit more minority students into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines and to help them succeed, advance in their studies and move into positions of their own in academia.  While on the faculty at UMSL, I was offered the position of VP for Education and Research at Baptist Health in Madisonville.  I was, initially, reluctant to take the job, but when I realized that it offered me the opportunity to come home and make a difference in the health and well-being of my hometown, I took it.  While at Baptist Health, I applied for and was accepted into the first cohort of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders program.  In this three year program, from which I graduated in 2019, I learned a great deal about issues of community health, social determinants of health, health equity, social justice, community organization and collective impact.  With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and additional funding from the Good Samaritan Foundation of Kentucky, I, along with our partner organizations, founded the ARCH coalition in 2017.  I left Baptist Health in 2019 to concentrate on my community work. 

 Senior Consultant/ Kentucky Eastern Region

Dr. Sandi Curd’s interest in leadership began through participation in Leadership-Tri County, the leadership development initiative serving three Southeastern Counties in Appalachian Kentucky. This interest resulted in her research “Collaborative Leadership’s Role in Appalachia.” Curd is the Promise Zone Coordinator, created when Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation was named America’s first rural Promise Zone. In 2022, the Biden Administration recognized this partnership as a round-one pilot in the Rural Partner Network called the Kentucky Highlands Community Network. Curd’s work as Coordinator provides a relationship with eight counties’ local governments and leaders in education, healthcare, economic development, broadband, substance abuse, agriculture, housing, and downtown revitalization. Curd also serves as the National Coalition of Promise Zones convenor, bringing all 22 zones together to share best practices.

Curd founded the Upper Cumberland Community Foundation and serves on the boards of The Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky, The Red Bird Settlement School, The East Kentucky Leadership Foundation, and The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. She is one of twenty national leaders representing southeast Kentucky on the National Association of Counties (NACo) Building Resilient Economies in Coal Communities’ (BRECC) The Coal Communities Commitment Coalition. Curd accepted an appointment to the Rural Housing Trust Fund Advisory Committee to address the 2022 Flood housing crisis.

Curd is a thirty-year First Baptist Church Corbin member, teaching an adult Sunday School class. Her husband, Bryan, is a physician working in the Emergency Department at Baptist Health Corbin. They enjoy movies, books, and their two dogs: Doc Holiday, Big Nose Kate, and quarter horse Bo. They reside on a farm in Whitley County, Kentucky.