Dayton City Commissioner Matt Joseph was first elected to the Commission in 2003 and is currently serving his fifth term. With extensive legislative and management experience, and a depth of civic and community service skills, he is dedicated to making Dayton a great place to live, work and play, and a welcoming place to do business.

As Commissioner, he is committed to improving Dayton's housing stock, beautifying neighborhoods, improving safety, and attracting and retaining talented young professionals and entrepreneurs. He currently serves as the Chair of the Welcome Dayton Committee, a community initiative that promotes immigrant integration into the greater Dayton community. He also has been a strong advocate for making the changes needed to make sure that the city organization and residents are operating in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. He spearheaded the adoption of the Dayton Sustainability Plan, and led the push for electric aggregation, which now enables Dayton residents to choose 100% renewable electric power at a competitive price.

Perhaps most importantly for Dayton residents, through the years of difficult budget times he has led the efforts to continue to provide the essential services that residents need and deserve. He has successfully advocated for the consolidation of City offices into City-owned buildings (moving out of leased space), saving the city thousands of dollars every year. Commissioner Joseph has championed the use of technology to reduce costs and improve efficiency, including moving Commission documents online from paper, and implementing VOIP, RFID and hand-held computing technology in order to better serve citizens. He has championed development in the city, including Tech Town, where innovative technology jobs are being created on former brownfields sites. In partnership with the City Manager, he led a task force seeking ways for the City to improve communication and coordination with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. In his most recent term, he worked with community leaders and city staff to overhaul and improve police oversight policies and procedures, and championed demolishing unusable housing, increased road and alley repaving, and the reinstatement of curbside leaf pickup.

Prior to his election to the Commission, Commissioner Joseph served as Chief Deputy Clerk of Courts for Montgomery County and was responsible for helping manage a staff of 125 and an annual operating budget of over $7 million. Earlier in his career, while serving as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Tony Hall, he worked to ensure that Dayton was well-represented in Congress and gained valuable experience helping to create thoughtful legislation and guiding it through the House of Representatives and into law. As a legislative staffer, he advised Congressman Hall on the environment, education, labor policy, space policy and missile systems, and gained in-depth knowledge on these and other issues.

Commissioner Joseph has experience in education and in the private sector. He worked at the University of Dayton on education and business projects designed to reinforce the peace in and strengthen the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also served as a project coordinator for a non-profit working to reduce predatory lending and bring homeownership opportunities to people who might not normally have them. He worked as a consultant to NASA in the field of technology management and strategic planning, and managed a program that improved cost, quality, and schedule of the depot maintenance of US Air Force aircraft. He is currently employed by Sierra Nevada Corporation as a Principal Logistics Engineer.

Commissioner Joseph is an active member of the Dayton community, serving on the boards of the Dayton Sister Cities Committee and the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. He coaches or has coached youth baseball, basketball, volleyball, and soccer. He served seven years as President of the Board of Directors of the House of Bread, and proudly served on the Southeast Priority Board, the Board of Directors of the National Conference for Community and Justice, Film Dayton, the Neighborhood Schools Centers Oversight Council, the Mother Brunner Literacy Center, and the Board of the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center. A graduate of Carroll High School and the University of Dayton, Commissioner Joseph earned a master's degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. Commissioner Joseph is married with two children.