Splitting his time as a boy between the Eastern Sierras and Mendocino, CA, Lance Matthewson grew up with a love of the outdoors and nature. Maybe that’s why hiking, cross country skiing, and backpacking are among his favorite activities now as an adult. It’s also maybe why he’s spent 7 years in Kauai and 13 in Northern New Mexico before finding his way back to Ashland.
Lance received his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Southern Oregon University in the mid-2000s and got his teaching degree in Albuquerque where LouAnne Johnson, the real-life inspiration for Michelle Pfeiffer’s character in the movie Dangerous Minds, mentored him. She was “a fantastic teacher. I learned so much from her.” Some of his best memories from that time were leading the Outdoor Education program with Native American kids—“they really taught me as much as I taught them.” Lance ended up spending 13 years as a teacher and counselor in Albuquerque.
Wanting to move back closer to family and get back to a more rural environment, Lance came back to Ashland in 2021 and became our Child Development Specialist/Counselor in the spring of 2022. About his role at AMS, Lance says, “I love helping people, and I know when I am helping kids, I am also helping myself.”