Matt Bloom, PhD
Director
For 25 years Matt Bloom was a tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame. He recently changed roles so he can devote his time to bringing the vast but esoteric body of research on wellbeing to a wider audience, and to working with his co-founders and team at Ritual.
Matt’s research focuses on the wellbeing of helping and healing professionals. Matt and his WorkWell team have studied how people find and live into deeply meaningful work, the joys and sorrows they face, and the factors that help make that work life-enriching instead of life-depleting. In his more recent work, Matt explores the spiritual dimensions of work and wellbeing.
Matt is currently working on two books. Wise Wellbeing Practices presents the wide range of wellbeing practices that have emerged from cutting-edge science. Mindfulness meditation is just one of many great practices, and in this book, he hopes to provide people with resources they can use to create personalized practices that fit neatly into their lives.
A Savage Yes describes the results of a 15 year study on people who feel “called” to their work. It chronicles the experiences of over 200 people and offers insights for people who want to find ways to make their work experiences more meaningful.
Matt received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Before becoming a professor, he was a consultant for Arthur Young and a financial advisor for Shearson Lehman Brothers. At Notre Dame, Matt taught classes on design thinking and innovation to undergraduates, MBA students and a variety of work organizations.
Matt lives in the mountains of Lost River West Virginia with Kim and their English Shepherds, Blaze and Ember. His son, Nicholas, holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Duke University and works as a human-centered design specialist at the National Archives. His other son, Keaton, is an architect in Manhattan, New York where he and his wife, Maíra Fonseca, a dermatologist, are parents to Matt and Kim’s first grandchild, Mateo.
One of Matt’s passions is backcountry hiking, so he loves going “off the grid” on backwoods trails whenever he can. He also enjoys gardening, rock climbing, and writing.