Mayor's Office

Recognized for his entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and passion for building organizations, Matthew has expertise in organizational development, real estate, finance, and capacity building. Most importantly, he has a genuine love for people.

Before coming to City Hall, Matthew was Habitat for Humanity Greater Fresno Area’s CEO, a position he held since 2015.  He helped the organization improve housing conditions for 28 times the number of families it had served on an annual basis prior to his arrival. Nationally, Matthew has helped lead strategic visioning for 1,200 Habitat operations across the US. While Matthew’s leadership has led to the expansion of building homes and hope with families across two counties and four countries, he is focused on seeing his local community thrive.

Prior to his work at Habitat, Matthew worked as an organizational consultant, developer, and President of a national supplemental educational services company that focused on turning around failing public schools.  His work helped improve K-12 academic outcomes for 250,000 low-income students across 16 states within 1,000 schools.

Formerly homeless, Matthew is from Southern California.  He received a Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, with an emphasis in entrepreneurial studies, from the University of Southern California.

Matthew and his wife are ‘foodies’ who love a good meal. He enjoys cooking, reading, singing, playing board games, and taking family trips whenever he can.

Kelli also serves as a liaison to the City Council, her colleagues, and various community stakeholders.

Kelli brings a diverse and entrepreneurial background to Mayor Dyer’s office, including more than a decade of previous public service with the City of Fresno.  She served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Swearengin, and then as an Assistant Director in the Planning Department. Most recently, Kelli was Assistant Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Fresno Housing Authority.

Prior to her public sector services, Kelli was Chief Operating Officer for a local business incubator and played a key role in the development of the Water and Energy Technology (WET) Incubator located at Fresno State, where she was also the Associate Director of the Office of Community and Economic Development.

Kelli is deeply committed to ongoing professional development, and has earned several certificates in relevant industries including the Center for Community Progress at Harvard Law, the James Irvine Foundation New Leadership Network, the California Association for Code Enforcement Officers, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and the Housing Policy Leadership Academy.

A Fresno native, Kelli had an adventurous and entrepreneurial upbringing throughout the western states before returning to the area, where she resides with her family.

Prior to joining Mayor Dyer’s team, Chris served 19 years with the City of Fresno’s Code Enforcement/Community Revitalization Division.  In that job, he was responsible for working on highly complex land-use matters, Downtown/Neighborhood Revitalization efforts, and played a key role in developing the City’s first Rental Housing Inspection Program.

Chris serves as the California Chapter Director of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), the largest Hispanic Christian organization in the country representing more than 42,000 churches.  He also has worked closely with Presidential Advisors and members of Congress on legislation relating to criminal justice reform and comprehensive immigration reform.  In 2019, Chris collaborated with several California community-based organizations as plaintiffs in a successful lawsuit of the National Mortgage Special Deposit Fund, returning $331 million to California distressed homeowners and renters.

Chris was recently named to PG&E’s Communities of Color Advisory Group, which focuses on diversity outreach and engagement. He is a graduate of the San Joaquin Political Academy.  He currently mentors and advises Fresno’s pro boxing sensation, Marc Castro.

Chris is married and has four children.  He loves baseball, boxing, hunting, fishing, and golf.

He also assists Mayor Dyer as part of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the League of California Cities, and the Big City Mayors, an ad hoc group comprised of mayors from the State’s 13 largest cities.

John joined the City in 2017 after more than 30 years as a journalist, working at newspapers in Oroville CA, Philadelphia, Gary IN, and Wichita KS before joining The Fresno Bee in 2000 as the paper’s political writer.  In 17 years at The Bee, John covered Fresno’s local political scene, as well as state and national political conventions and state and federal governments, including California Governors Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jerry Brown, and Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.  He also covered state and federal courts.

John is a graduate of California State University, Chico, earning a BA in Information and Communication Studies.  He is married and has two children, and besides a deep love of baseball, has a lifelong passion for travel, visiting 49 of 50 states and close to 60 countries on five continents.

A lifelong Central Valley resident, Sarah grew up in Kerman and is a proud Lion!

Sarah comes to the Mayor’s Office after spending three years at Granville Homes. At Granville, she was the CEO’s Executive Assistant.  In that role, Sarah was instrumental in helping support the company’s day-to-day operations, along with facilitating all aspects of internal and external communications.  She assisted with everything from creating a vision for various philanthropic projects to helping create a path for more residents to become homeowners.

Motivated and driven, Sarah has no problem multi-tasking and loves working with people and serving the community.

When Sarah is not at City Hall, there is a good chance you will find her at her favorite local golf course, Riverside Golf Course where she recently made a hole in one!  She also loves spending time with her family, especially weekly family dinners where she gets to see her sweet niece, Charlotte.