Ivory Mathews is the Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Housing and Cayce Housing, having dedicated more than 20 years of her professional career to the affordable housing industry.

Under Mathews’ leadership, Columbia Housing is putting residents first, rebuilding public trust, increasing organizational efficiency and creating a climate of transparency and accountability. Using these principles, Columbia Housing has launched an aggressive $500 million portfolio repositioning and redevelopment strategy with an unrelenting focus on the preservation and creation of quality affordable housing for the families they serve.

Ivory holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling & Psychology from Troy University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Newberry College, and several nationally recognized certifications in the affordable housing arena. She is also a Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Initiative Fellow and has recently been named Top 20 Dynamic CEOs for 2021 by The CEO Publication.

Early on in our conversation I stumbled upon the fact that Ivory is a former college athlete which led to a fascinating conversation about how this has shaped her as a leader.

We also got deep into the weeds of some of the implicit biases she has come up against in her career, and what we can all be doing as leaders to remove these for those that we lead.

Before we get to the conversation, I have an offer for you. I’m giving away free access to my Weekly Planning Protocol online course. In order to access it, simply leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts and send a screenshot of that review to chat@ben-morton.com. We’ll then send you access details for the course.

And now, without any further delay, please enjoy my conversation with Ivory Matthews.

Links Mentioned:

‘The Color of Law’ ​​by Richard Rothstein: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631492853 

Find out more about Ben’s work: https://linktr.ee/BMLeadership