Patricia Santistevan Matthews is an Assistant Professor Clinical with the Mild/Moderate Special Education Program at the University of Utah. She earned her doctorate from Northern Arizona University in curriculum and instruction with a special emphasis in programming for culturally linguistically diverse populations. She has worked as both a special education teacher in the areas of mild/moderate and severe programs and as a Prevention Specialist in general education. Patricia has developed programs for "at risk" regular and special population students, and has trained teachers, parents and support staff.

Before coming to the University of Utah, she was employed by Granite School District for fifteen years where she was awarded the Granite Education Foundation Excel Outstanding Educator award for the 1998-99 school year. Her research interests include mathematics instruction for struggling students, female educational empowerment for diverse students, and designing and evaluating service learning projects at both the local and global community levels concerning rights to education for special education and immigrant/refugee populations.