Mathis attended GHC from 1976-78. He joined the college staff in 1993 in the Physical and Health Education Department (PHED) as the Lab Coordinator. From 1995-2003, Mathis was also the Project Administrator for the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP), a six week summer camp for disadvantaged youth.
As a camp administrator, Mathis is a 20 year veteran of working with at-risk youth. When federal funding was cut for the NYSP, a program that was held on the GHC Campus for 30 years, the Foundation Camp was created. As an outgrowth of the NYSP, the Foundation Camp flourished with help from Dr. John Hershey and Greg Shropshire of the 100 Black Men of Rome/Northwest Georgia. The camp received financial support from the GHC Foundation and community donors.
Mathis also served as chair of the faculty/staff campaign for the college’s first capital campaign. He helped secure 100% participation from the GHC faculty and staff, which greatly aided the launch of the Legacy Campaign.
Mathis is also a strong community leader. He currently serves on the Local School Governance Committee at Pepperell High School and is the volunteer athletic trainer at the high school. He has also served on the Tour de Georgia Host Committee, Rome’s RACE to 1996 Olympic Committee, and was a little league baseball coach and led his team to a World Series championship. He is currently serving a 5-year term with Rome Floyd Parks and Rec Authority Board where he served as chair in 2011 and is a member of the NAIA National Football Championship Host Committee.
Perhaps Mathis’ most impressive achievement has been helping to raise funds for student scholarships. For the past 19 years, Mathis has been the tournament director for local high school basketball tournaments played at GHC. Proceeds, which have totaled $152,000 in scholarship money, have helped hundreds of “non-traditional” GHC students stay in school and graduate.
Mathis serves as Assistant Athletic Director and is currently helping new basketball coach and Athletic Director, Phillip Gaffney, construct a new athletics program at the college. Men’s and women’s basketball are scheduled to top-off in October 2012.
He and his wife Kathy have two grown children, Brooks and Ryan.