Dr. Dirk Mattson brings a passion for serving state partners and driving innovation to his role as SVP of Solutions Delivery & Operations. In this position, he leads the teams tasked with the delivery of state and large district programs, as well as the operational production that supports these programs.

Dirk began his career in education as a middle school teacher before serving at the district and state level with the Minnesota Department of Education, where he served as the director of Research and Assessment.

Prior to joining NWEA, Dirk was the principal investigator for work that led to the development of the APIP technology standard to promote accessibility guidelines in assessment. He was also one of the contributing authors of the original volume of Operational Best Practices for Statewide Large-Scale Assessment Programs, a collaboration between state assessment programs and test publishers.

Dirk holds a BA in secondary education from Concordia University – St. Paul, as well as a master’s in English education from Minnesota State University and a PhD in curriculum and instruction from Arizona State University.