2025 Citizen Lawyer Award: Dayatra T. Matthews
Dayatra T. Matthews (“Day”) is Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for Civic Federal Credit Union. A fierce credit union advocate, Day has served on the CFPB’s Credit Union Advisory Council and was most recently appointed to the Board of Directors for America’s Credit Union Association.
Outside of the credit union industry, Day’s past and present leadership roles include: recent appointee to the board of directors for UNC-Rex Healthcare; current member of the executive board of the YMCA of the Triangle; past chair of the board of directors for EarthShare NC; former board member and volunteer for Hospice of Wake County (now Transitions Care), and former board member and volunteer for Movement of Youth, a Durham non-profit dedicated to mentoring youth in underserved areas of North Carolina. A past recipient of the Corporate Counsel of the Year Award from Triangle Business Journal and the Leader in the Law Award from NC Lawyers’ Weekly, Day also holds the distinction of being the first women of color elected to lead NC’s 10th Judicial District Bar (2022-2023) and the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys (2017-2018).
Day graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the UNC-Chapel Hill and obtained her J.D. from Duke School of Law.