She received a PhD in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976,[6] where she was mentored by David C. Glass and Arnold Buss.
She conducted her dissertation research, Mother-child interactions as a determinant of Type A behavior, under the supervision of Arnold Buss.
[7] Matthews has served as a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh since 2009.
She led the Pittsburgh site of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) from its inception through 2020.
She has also served as: president of the Division of Health Psychology and the American Psychosomatic Society; a member of Council of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and the advisory board for the NIH Center for Scientific Research; and editor-in-chief of Health Psychology.