Matt Coker

I live in Meredith with my wife Chelsea and have three daughters. I enjoy dabbling in just about everything that New Hampshire has to offer. In the winter I can be found skiing the slopes of Gunstock or doing a little ice fishing. In the summer I enjoy hiking, golfing and enjoying our beautiful lake. I moved to the Granite State in 2011 after growing up in Tampa, FL with my mother and younger brother and spending my summers in Arkansas with my father. I spent my high school years sweeping airplane hangars and refueling small planes at a local airport to earn enough money to get my pilot's license even before I earned my driver's license. I grew up dreaming of being a pilot and worked hard over the years to make that dream come true.

After high school I had a variety of aviation jobs, including managing a flight department at the age of twenty and going on to be one of the youngest captains in a flight department with hundreds of pilots until I was temporarily grounded by the recession. Fortunately, that grounding didn’t last long and led to me moving to the great state of New Hampshire. After finishing my Aeronautics degree and working a series of jobs I finally achieved my dream job as an airline pilot for a major airline. Some of the highlights of my career have been flying to almost every continent-still working on making it to Antarctica. I was fortunate enough to be selected for the training department of a worldwide airline. In that role I was tasked with teaching incoming pilots how to fly a 250 passenger airliner and how to operate it in dynamic environments all over the world. I have also volunteered to mentor new pilots and served on various union committees working with airline management to come up with solutions to complex operational and business issues. Lastly, but definitely not least I have had the honor and privilege of flying American troops home from overseas deployment.

I have always had a strong interest in our nation's history, politics and governance. In recent years, I have followed town and county government closely, learning about the issues facing our local and county representatives. Having focused on these issues and hitting a point in my life where I have the opportunity to give more to the community, I have decided its time to step off the sidelines and get involved. My years of experience with complex and dynamic situations in the skies and on the ground will translate to being a reasonable voice on decisions that impact us as residents, families, and taxpayers.