Founder of Century of Compassion, Writer, Speaker, and Educator Matthew Vasko earned a degree in communications with a support field in psychology, and then went on to misspend his youth as an actor and comedian. When he wasn’t writing standup comedy and sketches, he was performing in them, or plays or national Taco Bell commercials. Simultaneous with a stint as an award-winning writer for McGraw-Hill, Matthew created a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world a more compassionate place.
This led to several years of organizing and leading a variety of volunteer events serving aid organizations in the greater Los Angeles area. For five years, Matthew has taught values-based art classes at a Pasadena public elementary school, fostering children’s understanding of empathy, compassion, tolerance, respect, and caring. Alongside all of these things Matthew spent more than 20 years working in the sales and customer service industry – everything from retail sales to managing large phone rooms and internet sales and customer service. Here, he learned a great deal about customer service, adult education, sales, leadership, and leadership development.
Today, Matthew works full time as a writer, speaker, and educator. His three years working full time in this role (partly as an education director for a Unitarian Universalist church) has helped to further his ability to inspire people of all ages to treat one another with respect, empathy, compassion, and kindness. As part of his work, Matthew not only promotes social justice, but helps youth and adults better understand why social justice work is so vitally important.
In his spare time, Matthew runs the Century of Compassion blog and website, posts to social media about respect, empathy, compassion, and kindness (RECK), and writes about how we can all help create a brighter future with RECK for All! He enjoys all of these things, but what matters most to him is his awesome wife and 10-year-old girl/boy twins who inspire him to keep striving to be the best husband and father he can be.
Matthew Vasko 