Dr. Rafael Matos

Dr. Rafael Matos is a communications expert on a mission to help people find their voices, take action and live their most authentically conscious lives.

TOPICS


  • Authenticity
  • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
  • Latinx Focused
  • Motivation & Inspiration
  • Personal Growth
  • Self Esteem
  • Stress Management

KEYNOTES


Dr. Rafael Matos helps people find their voice.

Getting to know

Dr. Rafael Matos

Dr. Rafael Matos is Afro-Latino, born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents. His family moved to NYC, where he grew up in the South Bronx. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Southern California, and a PhD in Communication Media and Instructional Technology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is a life member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Dr. Matos has worked on various college campuses, ranging from small liberal arts to large public institutions, where he effectively connected with students and engaged them in critical conversations. He has served as a consultant to national fraternities and sororities. He is a speaker and facilitator who has impacted thousands of people across the country.

Dr. Matos focuses on leadership and personal development. His work explores the intersectionality of identities through the use of personal narrative. His style is a blend of laid-back Los Angeles attitude and New York City directness – the result is a gentle, tough love approach that empowers people around him. His life motto, “Make what you believe manifest,” reflects his desire to help people achieve their best.

Rafael is an artist and dynamic speaker who shares his personal experiences through the power of storytelling. He thought provoking punchlines that leave his audiences in a self-reflective state of mind. His words paint vivid narratives that inspire and motivate his students to achieve their best selves.

Rafael embraces vulnerability and shares his experiences with topics of success and failure, self-esteem, social justice and diversity, mental health, masculinity, identity and leadership development. His 19 years of involvement with Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., at the local, regional and international level, make him the ideal person to engage and motivate fraternity and sorority members, especially NPHC and MGC communities.

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

To help you promote your event with Rafael, CAMPUSPEAK has created promotional templates you can use. In this folder, you will find resources for social media, a promotional poster for printing, and press photos you can use for your event.
Link to Promotional Materials

LOGISTICAL MATERIALS

In-Person Event AV Needs (PDF)
Speaking Introduction (PDF)

Connect with Dr. Matos
Celebrate the incredible #women in your lives!
Happy 71st birthday to my Fraternity Brother Dr. Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party. He was a brilliant mind, light years ahead of his contemporaries. He is the reason I chose @pbs_1914. He inspires me to push forward on days I’m not feeling my best.
Celebrate #blackhistory today and every day!!!
Dr. #MartinLutherKingJr said that “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” I will add that you also have to ask if what you are doing is the just and equitable thing for others. This could mean standing alone in support of a community, or challenging norms that marginalize a group of individuals. Regardless of the scope of our actions, we must do something daily to uplift our people.
Today I join the many #SigmaMen around the world wishing our beloed @pbs_1914 a #happyfoundersday! For 109 years, Sigma has brought strangers together in a bond of #brotherhood, motivated them to build a superior character through the pursuit of #scholarship and paved a path for them to dedicate their lives to #service their communities! I am proud to be part of this legacy and play a role in speeding our cause on its way! #bluphi #Sigma109 #gomab
Happy Founders’ Day to our dear Fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc! Today, we celebrate 109 years of #Brotherhood, #Scholarship, and #Service. The Bronx Sigmas are proud to carry on the legacy of our beloved Founders, Honorable Brothers A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, which is expressed in our motto, Culture for Service and Service for Humanity! We look forward to speeding our cause on its way and cultivating a culture of service throughout the Bronx. 

#thebronxsigmas #bronxsigmas #Sigma109 #bluphi #gomab
You know what I LOVE? My #bluphi #Sigma109
Happy #foundersday from the Sigma Motherland!!!

KEYNOTES

Positive Disruption: Embracing Yourself to Defeat Your Inner Saboteur

Feel like a fraud? Are you afraid of people discovering you are a fraud? Do you have difficulty internalizing your success? If you answered “Yes” these questions, chances are you may have a case of Impostor Syndrome! You are not alone – Did you know that about 70% of people experience impostor syndrome. Think about it, we are conditioned to believe that our titles and credentials are measures of our success, so much so that sometimes we focus our energies on securing external validation. And why is that even after we get the accolades we still feel empty? Because our inner saboteurs will not allow us to be our best

In this keynote, Rafael talks openly about overcoming imposter syndrome, defeating his inner saboteur, and living authentically.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of attending this program, students will learn:

  • Ways to differentiate between internal and external validation
  • 3 strategies to deal with their inner saboteur
  • Techniques to find their own internally-driven self-confidence
  • How to develop their own plan to live authentically
Bridges Not Walls: Confronting Bias in Your Community

Racial inequities in the United States were pushed further into the forefront of our country. Students are impacted by things such as the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer, the Black Lives Matter movement, the anti-Asian hate crimes, and healthcare disparities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. As champions for justice, diversity, equity and inclusion, we must identify and take action to address biased and oppressive behaviors.

While some leaders excel in this area, there are others who avoid the topic altogether. This interactive keynote session uses Critical Race Theory (CRT) social as a framework to provide participants practical ways to engage peers, students and professionals, across various identities, in dialogue that is meaningful, challenging and supportive of both professionals and students.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of attending this program, students will learn:

  • How to define microaggression and provide an example from their own experiences
  • How to identify personal barriers that hinder their ability to engage in diversity dialogue
  • How to identify their own strategy to address a diversity concern they face.
TALK WITH ME BRO! A Brother’s Guide to Healthy Accountability

Ever have a conversation with your fraternity Brother that started out good and ended very wrong? You thought it was a simple discussion, but somehow it escalated to a full-blown argument you could not escape! Then there was that time at a chapter meeting and there’s a Brother who is critical of everything, even the order of the agenda. You want to address your Brother’s concerns, but you don’t know where to start.

Managing interpersonal relationships is an essential component of leading a fraternity. And though we intend to be Brotherly in our dealings, our intentions are challenged by something called relational aggression, a form of aggression that harms relationships. This interactive session will share some practical and effective ways to positively address a Brother’s behavior, hold him accountable to fraternity expectations, and preserve relationships. Students will role play scenarios and gain resources to help them hone their newly acquired skills.

NOTE: This program can be customized to include women and non-Greek letter organizations.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of attending this program, students will learn:

  • How to identify behavior that constitutes relational aggression
  • Skills to confront chapter members’ inappropriate behaviors
  • Tips to facilitate healthy dialogue among chapter members
  • Techniques to maintain composure while confronting a difficult person
Surprise! You’re Having a Crisis

A crisis is an unpredictable event that can threaten the well-being of people and organizations. A crisis can occur at any time, and sometimes without warning. Crisis preparedness is often overlooked until it is too late and we find ourselves in the middle of a crisis. And while you can’t predict when a crisis will happen, you can anticipate one and prepare your strategy to deal with its impact.

Effective crisis management and communication are essential for the survival of any organization. The best method to deal with a crisis is to avoid one altogether. Easier said than done? Sometimes, but preparing yourself and your chapter to identify, anticipate and handle a crisis is not as difficult as you may think. This interactive session provides participants strategies to help them prepare a plan to navigate crises.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of attending this program, students will learn:

  • The definition of a crisis and how to identify how a crisis forms.
  • How to anticipate and prevent a crisis
  • Practical ways to manage a crisis in progress
  • How to build an effective crisis management plan
Hypermasculinity” in NPHC fraternities

Collegiate members of NPHC fraternities express their commitment to intellectual achievement and high standards in personal conduct, while at the same time, displaying problematic hypermasculine-like behaviors. The first reaction is to label members as hypermasculine, but digging deeper, this label may be inaccurate. Black men’s masculinity in the United States is constructed through a lens of racism and White supremacy. These hypermasculine-like behaviors are further influenced by popular culture and perceived representations of Black masculinity. Members may not realize the reasons why they are actively engaging and promoting these behaviors.

This interactive program seeks to develop critical perspectives on Black men masculinities related to power, privilege, and oppression by examining the misalignment between behavioral standards and expectations set by their fraternities and their actions. Symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, and media ecology provide a theoretical foundation to understand the influences of popular culture on hypermasculinity in collegiate chapters of NPHC fraternities. Participants will explore how collegiate members of NPHC fraternities renegotiate the behavior standards of their organization by decoding the messages and encoding them with their own meanings.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of attending this program, students will learn:

  • to identify popular culture influence on hypermasculine-like behaviors displayed by collegiate members of NPHC fraternities
  • to define the representations of Black masculinity, and
  • to identify alternative actions to replace hypermasculine-like behaviors.