Mary Matiella

Mary Matiella was a 2018 Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Arizona’s 2nd District, but lost in the primaries.

Matiella was born in Three Rivers, Texas, on June 21, 1950, and grew up in Tuscan, Arizona. She earned her Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Business Administration from the University of Arizona and her Doctor of Education in organizational development from George Washington University.

Matiella served as a budget analyst at Ramstein Air Base from 1980 to 1983, as a systems accountant for the United States Air Force Accounting Service in Denver from 1983 to 1986, and as a senior systems accountant at Fort Clayton from 1986 to 1989. She then returned to Denver, working at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) as a systems accountant 1989 to 1992; a staff accountant from 1992 to 1994; and as director of the CFO Implementation Office from 1994 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, she was director of accounting at the DFAS office in San Bernardino, California. She then moved to Washington, D.C., to become a staff accountant in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), a position she held until 2001. Matiella became a member of the Senior Executive Service in December 2001, becoming chief financial officer of the U.S. Forest Service. She later served as assistant chief financial officer for accounting for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development overseeing a $40 billion budget until her retirement in 2008. In November 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Matiella to be assistant secretary of the Army, and she was sworn in on February 16, 2010, serving until her retirement in 2014.