Matt Woodall has a mantra that he lives by at work: “Be the deputy you would want responding to your loved ones in an emergency.”
It is a quote he used during his time with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, and it is a quote that perfectly applies now as Woodall enters his new role as the Director of Safety and Emergency Management for Berkeley County School District.
As BCSD enters a brand-new school year, the district promises safe schools, and an experienced member of law enforcement who is family-centered and has a heart for children has taken the helm in the Office of Safety and Emergency Management.
“You can’t go wrong if you treat everyone the same way you treat your loved ones,” Woodall said. “These are all our kids, and we have to get it right. We don’t have the option to fail.”
Woodall is a product of BCSD; he graduated from Hanahan High in 1998. However, he grew up in Summerville right across the street from a fire chief. Next door to the fire chief was a captain from the sheriff’s department, who was married to a woman who worked for EMS. Subsequently, Woodall’s dream to become a first responder developed very early in life.
“The sheriff’s office captain would take me to the sheriff’s office on Saturday mornings, and I got to play ‘cops and robbers’ with one of the trustees,” he said. “I was just destined to be a first responder.”
During his time at Hanahan High, Woodall took a health occupations class, but his teacher knew Woodall was not interested in a career in healthcare. That teacher had a connection with the Hanahan Police Department and helped arrange for Woodall to participate in ride-alongs with the police officers, which was Woodall’s first official introduction to law enforcement.
When he turned 19, Woodall became a dispatcher for Hanahan’s police, fire, EMS and public works departments, with the promise that if he did a good job, he could work toward becoming a police officer when he turned 21.
That promise came to fruition and eventually Woodall joined the Hanahan Police Department, working with the patrol and detective units there from 1999 until 2007. He also got promoted to sergeant during that time. He then transitioned to the North Charleston Police Department, where most of his time was spent in the traffic unit.
In 2016, when Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis was elected, Woodall was one of several experienced officers Lewis brought with him to the Sheriff’s Office. Flash forward to 2021, Cheretha Kinlaw-Hickman joined Berkeley County School District’s Office of Safety and Emergency management, and Lewis decided to apply for her former job as the supervisor of BCSD’s school resource officers.
A job as an SRO was not something Woodall had ever considered for himself personally, but he made it a top priority to learn and understand the job in order to be an effective supervisor.
“My work ethic and my personality is: whatever I am responsible for, I am going to know that job, and know how to do it from the bottom to the top,” he said.
Woodall then immersed himself in BCSD’s schools, working with the SROs to do his research, and was blown away by the amount of work the SROs put into their assigned schools.
“It is crazy the amount of stuff they’re responsible for,” he said.
In 2023 Woodall got promoted to Captain, still overseeing SROs. During his time working with SROs, Woodall has witnessed how meaningful the role of an SRO is at any school; many of the BCSD’s SROs often go above and beyond in the job, serving as mentors and role models to students and showing up to after-school events to support their school’s community.
Earlier this year, Woodall was presented with the opportunity to join BCSD as the Interim Director of Safety and Emergency Management. He was officially named director in July, and Woodall said he is thoroughly enjoying his new role.
“It’s been a great transition,” he said. “Everybody has been so welcoming…I appreciate the relationships I’ve had and continue to make as this transition goes on. I’m very excited for what we already have and where we’re going.”
Woodall is a father to four and resides in Goose Creek. In addition to his time as a first responder, Woodall is an experienced blood donor and enjoys sharing about his sons’ accomplishments.
“I try to be a good person where I can,” he said. “You never know where people are at in their lives.”