Profile: Denise Matyka

by Kari Bellingham

AGE AND OCCUPATION: 48, executive director of Project Home, a non-profit organization in Madison, which provides affordable housing and home repairs for area residents.

EQUAL RIGHTS CRUSADER: Matyka got into activism when she landed a job on the 1981 Equal Rights Amendment campaign straight out of college. “It really started me down a new path and it exposed me to all kinds of work I’d never thought about doing.”

THE GREAT EXPANDER: In addition to managing Project Home’s annual $5 million operating budget, running its two housing developments and overseeing numerous volunteer events, Matyka has tripled the non-profit’s funding and doubled its staff since 1999. Over the past two years, Project Home has helped almost 5,000 people and made repairs to more than 2,000 houses.

IT TAKES DRIVE: Matyka has also poured vast amounts of energy into what she says has been one of her greatest professional challenges — running Project Home’s low-income housing project in Madison’s notoriously decrepit Allied Drive neighborhood. She has the “greatest admiration” for the people who live there and hopes her work can make a difference in their lives. “Oftentimes when I hear the stories of some of these people, I think that if I was facing just one of the many very serious pressures these people are, I would crack.”

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Outside of her fulfilling professional life, Matyka has the home life she’s always dreamed of as well. A year and a half ago, she and her partner, Margaret McMurray, adopted their daughter, Maria, from Russia. “I feel very lucky because I have a job I love and a wonderful family.”

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