Matthew Melo serves as an Advisory Director of Agard Research Associates, Inc. He is a public historian and political scientist whose training spans anthropology, history, political science, and public history. He earned an Associate of Arts in Anthropology from Brookdale Community College in May 2022, where he was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science, cum laude, at Rutgers University in August 2024, together with a Certificate in Heritage Management. He received his Master of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers in October 2025, summa cum laude, with a concentration in United Nations and Global Policy. His graduate work was recognized with the 2025 UNMA essay contest award, and the resulting research paper was published on that organization's website. He also completed a summer 2025 study abroad program in South Africa on education, culture, and change.

​

Since September 2023, Matthew has served as a Historical Interpreter at Monmouth Battlefield State Park, where he develops and delivers educational programs and interpretive activities for the visiting public. He conducts research on historical topics connected to the site, and he built and manages a reference library of more than two thousand volumes that has improved staff access to source material and made research at the park more efficient. He also leads a small team of seasonal staff and interns, training and mentoring them in the work of the site. That combination of original research, public teaching, and staff development bears directly on the educational and professional development programs of Agard Research Associates, including the organization's dedicated educational track on veterans and military service.

​

Since October 2025, Matthew has worked as a Fieldworker with the Folklife Center of Northern New Jersey, conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Jersey City and Newark to identify tradition bearers and document community cultural practices. He records interviews and events through field notes, photography, and audio and video recording, and he prepares reports that summarize his findings and recommend artists for future programming. This work is a practical exercise in the cultural competence the organization holds as a core value. It requires him to enter communities on their own terms, to listen carefully to how people describe their own traditions, and to represent those practices accurately to the institutions that fund and program cultural work.

​

Matthew brings to the Advisory Board a combination of qualifications well suited to the organization's method. His graduate training in global policy and institutional analysis supports the research and policy work of Agard Research Associates, while his background as a public historian equips him to translate that work for general audiences, which the organization holds to be a responsibility rather than an afterthought. His field experience places him in regular contact with the underserved communities that the organization's programs are meant to serve, and his working knowledge of Portuguese and Korean strengthens that engagement in the diverse communities of northern New Jersey. Taken together, his interests and training reflect the interdisciplinary conviction on which the organization is founded, which holds that the methods of political science and public administration must be joined to the older disciplines of the humanities if questions about institutions, work, and citizenship are to be answered responsibly.

​

Professional/Academic Affiliations:

• Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society