Pacific Logistics Group | Pacific Program Facilitation & Management

About

Built on a decade of work in the Pacific

Pacific Logistics Group is a program facilitation and management firm founded by Matt Coleman, who has spent more than a decade working alongside communities, governments, and institutions across the Central Pacific.

PLG's role is to connect funded projects with the right people and expertise, handling program design, stakeholder engagement, logistics, and management through delivery.

PLG's founder has administered federal grant portfolios exceeding $1 million, with full compliance across multi-year award cycles.

We work with Pacific Island government institutions, international NGOs, donor-funded programs, and development organizations. Our value is operational: knowing how programs actually get delivered in the Pacific, and who to call when they need to. The right people are already in the network, and they know how to work in context. The technical expertise comes from a network of specialists we have worked with and trust.

Matt Coleman

Founder & Principal

Matt's Pacific work began in 2015, coordinating disaster response following Super Typhoon Maysak, a month on the ground in Yap State and the Outer Islands managing logistics and stakeholder communications through active infrastructure failure.

From 2018 to 2023, he served as Director of Operations at Habele Outer Island Education Fund, directing the largest U.S.-based NGO serving K–12 students across FSM. He secured and managed competitive U.S. federal grants, built partnerships across all four FSM state Departments of Education, and maintained program delivery through the FSM's COVID-19 border closure, among the longest and most restrictive in the world.

What we do

How PLG works

PLG is not a technical specialist firm. We are the people who make sure the right specialists are in the right place, that the program is designed to work in the actual context, and that the work gets done.

Program design & development

Designing programs that fit the real constraints of Pacific Island contexts: limited infrastructure, decentralized governance, outer island logistics, and the community relationships that determine whether a program survives its first year.

Project facilitation & management

Managing the full lifecycle of a project from scoping and team assembly through implementation, reporting, and handoff. Keeping timelines, budgets, and stakeholder relationships on track across distributed teams.

Stakeholder & government engagement

Building the relationships that make programs possible with government ministries, traditional leaders, community organizations, and institutional partners. Trust is earned through presence and consistency, not through presentations.

Expert network coordination

Connecting funded projects with the right technical expertise, including education specialists, engineers, environmental scientists, aviation and logistics professionals, and technology implementers. PLG manages those relationships through delivery.

Capacity building & training

Designing and delivering training programs built around local ownership and long-term sustainability. The goal is always a program the community can run independently, without continued outside support.

Crisis response & continuity

Maintaining program delivery when things go wrong: natural disasters, infrastructure failure, supply chain collapse, border closures. Tested across Super Typhoon Maysak and a three-year COVID border closure across four island jurisdictions.

The work

A decade of program delivery across the Central Pacific

The following examples reflect work delivered by PLG's founder during his tenure at Habele Outer Island Education Fund (2018 to 2023) and earlier in the Pacific, representing the experience and relationships PLG draws on today.

2015, Yap State and Outer Islands

Typhoon Maysak disaster response

Spent a month on the ground in Yap State and the Outer Islands coordinating logistics and stakeholder communications in the immediate aftermath of a category-five typhoon. Managed program continuity through active infrastructure failure across remote island locations.

2017 onward, FSM

School wifi network deployment

Working with state education departments across Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Yap, managed logistics for wifi network installations in partner schools, including procurement, inter-island shipping, and on-site implementation in locations with limited infrastructure.

2017 onward, FSM

National education technology program

Designed, launched, and scaled a hands-on technology program from a single high school in Yap to public and private schools across FSM, including outer islands. Built partnerships with state education departments and managed full program operations through multiple grant cycles.

Introducing robotics at Kosrae High School, Kosrae State, FSM

2019, Ebeye, Marshall Islands

RMI Ministry of Education program

At the request of the RMI Ministry of Education, designed and ran a two-week residential technology camp across six high schools on Ebeye. Managed trainer deployment, equipment logistics, and program delivery to one of the Pacific's most densely populated and underserved island communities. The first program of its kind in the Marshall Islands.

2020 to 2023, FSM

Advanced manufacturing during COVID border closure

During the FSM's three-year border closure, worked with partner schools across Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Yap to establish the first high school 3D printing labs in the region, so students could manufacture their own parts when supply chains failed. Programs continued without interruption.

2023, Chuuk, FSM

Capacity building and program handoff

Designed and delivered a peer-to-peer training workshop in Chuuk, with educators and students from Pohnpei training their counterparts directly. The final step in a deliberate multi-year handoff strategy, transferring full program ownership to local schools and educators without dependency on outside support.

Peer-to-peer robotics training, Chuuk State

Peer-to-peer robotics training workshop, Chuuk State, August 2023

Across crisis response, technology infrastructure, education programs, and capacity building, the through line is the same: programs designed for the actual context, delivered through the right people, and built to last after the outside support is gone.

Our network

The right expertise for each engagement

PLG does not maintain a large internal staff. Instead, we draw on an established network of specialists who are brought into engagements based on what the project actually requires.

In-region, PLG maintains working relationships with local operators, government contacts, civil aviation partners, and community organizations across the Central Pacific. When programs require physical presence, we know who to call and how to move them.

Areas of specialist expertise

Education and pedagogy: PLG's education specialist holds dual master's degrees in pedagogy and works as a school administrator with direct FSM field experience.

Environmental science and aquaculture: PLG's environmental specialist holds a PhD in biology with published research, extensive aquaculture experience, and has delivered remote technical training in Pacific Island contexts.

Technology and connectivity: network infrastructure, digital systems, and technical training across remote Pacific Island locations.

Aviation and logistics: inter-island transport, cargo coordination, and remote access planning through direct relationships with regional aviation operators.

Grants management and compliance: federal and donor-funded program administration.

Press

From the field

Selected coverage featuring PLG founder Matt Coleman, from The Kaselehlie Press, FSM's national newspaper of record.

Kaselehlie Press · August 2023

Summer Break an Opportunity for STEM Development in Chuuk

Coverage of a peer-to-peer robotics training workshop in Chuuk State, documenting the knowledge transfer from Pohnpei educators and students to their Chuukese counterparts. The article features direct quotes from Matt Coleman on program design and from local school leadership on the value of peer-led learning. The workshop represented the deliberate handoff of a multi-year program to local ownership.

Making funded programs work across the Pacific.

Built on a decade of work in the Pacific

How PLG works

A decade of program delivery across the Central Pacific

The right expertise for each engagement

From the field

Let's talk about your program