Matthew D. Chase has served as the CEO/Executive Director of the National Association of Counties (NACo) since September 2012. During his tenure at NACo, the association has launched several significant initiatives, including the Counties Futures Lab, Stepping Up campaign to address the intersection of mental illness and jails, Data­ Driven Justice initiative to address high frequency utilizers of county services and the Harvard-NACo County Executives Forum. Before joining NACo, Chase served nearly a decade as executive director of the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), which represents local government-based regional planning and development organizations. He has authored and co-authored numerous publications, assessment toolkits, federal policy reports and white papers, and has also previously served as membership services director and chief operating officer of the Professional Managers Association (PMA). Chase has served on advisory boards and committees for the Ford Foundation’s Wealth Creation in Rural America initiative, Rural Policy Research Institute, University of Vermont’s Transportation Research Center and the Purdue Center for Regional Development, and he is a member of the CEO Roundtable and the American Society of Association Executives. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. Chase is a graduate of Hartwick College in Otsego County, New York, and holds a master’s degree in political management from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.