She is a Fellow of West Point's Network Science center, and a Cyber Affiliate of West Point's Cyber Research Center. She received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University, and her M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was recognized as a Texas A&M University Dissertation Fellow during the final year of her Ph.D. studies, and served as a research assistant for three years prior. While completing her M.S. at Rensselaer, Dr. Matthews was recognized as a Master Teaching Fellow, and held research and teaching assistantships. As an undergraduate, she was awarded a summer research grant through the CRA-W Distributed Mentoring Program (now DREU).