Dona Matthews

For many years, I ran a private practice where I did assessments, counselling, and consulting with families and schools; I share many of their stories in the books and articles I write. I love working with parents and kids, helping them figure things out so they can live their best lives. I also enjoy working with teachers, helping them find their own best ways to support children’s and teens’ learning and well-being.

Academic pursuits have been another area of engagement and focus throughout my career. I was the Executive Director of the Millennium Dialogue for Early Child Development at the University of Toronto, and the founding director of the Hunter College Center for Gifted Education and Development, City University of New York. I’ve taught at several universities in Canada and the US, and have written dozens of articles and book chapters, given dozens of media interviews and conference presentations. I’ve co-authored or co-edited several books: Being Smart about Gifted Learning: Empowering Parents and Kids Through Challenge and Change; Beyond Intelligence: Secrets of Raising Happily Productive Kids; The Development of Giftedness and Talent across the Life Span; and The Routledge International Companion to Gifted Education.

Beverley Slopen is my literary agent, and also a friend and mentor. I thank her for supporting me in my writing journey, teaching me to leave behind some of the more stilted academic conventions and move toward a friendlier, more conversational, and more authentic voice. I have a book coming soon in that more approachable and personal style: Imperfect Parenting: How to Build a Relationship with Your Child to Weather Any Storm, being published by the LifeTools imprint of the American Psychological Association. And I write a blog for Psychology Today.

My path through life has not been easy or smooth, but I’ve been blessed with a remarkable network of social support, including some great friends, and a large and extraordinary extended family. I have a total of eight siblings and half-siblings, with terrific partners and wonderful children (and in many cases grandchildren, too). I live in Toronto, with my husband Stephen Gross, and get enormous pleasure from him and our blended family of four kids—Robin Spano, Alex Gross, Erin Kawalecki, and Ashley Gross—and their amazingly perfect spouses, as well as their children, my cherished grandkids: Theo, Sasha, Zoe, Jackson, Devon, Simon, and Riley.