Janice Mathis, a UGA alumna and vice president of the nonprofit Citizenship Education Fund, will deliver the keynote address at the seventh annual Black Faculty and Staff Organization’s Founders Day Luncheon at noon Sept. 22 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.
Mathis, who also has served as general counsel to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and was managing partner of Thurmond, Mathis and Pickett law firm in Athens, is the host of “Community Talk,” a public interest program on WAOK-AM in Atlanta, “Truth to Power,” a community affairs show of WXAG-AM and “Sisters-in-Law,” a on WVEE-FM in Atlanta.
Her passion for public discourse stemmed from an early love of the printed word, she said.
“I went to law school because they didn’t have a journalism program at Duke,” said Mathis, who graduated form UGA’s School of Law in 1980. “Journalism now is just a hobby, but it was my first love. I wanted to tell stories. I wanted to be the black Louisa May Alcott.”
At the luncheon, she plans to speak about the expectations placed on students and how they can best achieve high goals, which is something she knows first-hand.
Her employer, the Citizen Education Fund, is an advocacy and educational organization that seeks to aid less fortunate populations through education, public policy and other means.
“It is a research and education organization,” Mathis said. “We work on voter registration and empowerment, family engagement and education, and business inclusion and diversity.”
Proceeds from the luncheon directly benefit the BFSO scholarship program, which honors students who show outstanding leadership and scholarship at the university. Four scholarships will be given out at the luncheon.
Tickets run $30 per seat or $240 per table of eight. No tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at www.membermanager.net/bfso/index.php.