Matt Strickler is the current Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

[2] After receiving degrees in public policy and environmental studies from Washington and Lee University, he completed master's programs in public policy and marine science at the College of William and Mary,[2] where he studied aquaculture and sustainable development at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

He was selected that year as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow through the Virginia Sea Grant Program.

[4] Strickler first met Ralph Northam in 2008, while working in Hampton Roads for Mark Warner's 2008 senatorial campaign.

[3] Northam then brought Strickler on as a legislative aid, upon being elected to the Virginia State Senate.