MVCC Trustee Mathis named to lead national organization of community college trustees

UTICA — Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) Trustee David Mathis is one step away from leading the nation’s largest organization of community college trustees, the college recently announced.

Mathis, of Utica, was recently named chair-elect of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), which represents more than 6,500 trustees at over 1,200 community colleges across the nation, MVCC said in a news release.  Mathis has previously served as vice chair and secretary/treasurer of the ACCT board’s executive committee and is currently serving as northeast regional director. 

Mathis is the director of the Oneida County Office of Workforce Development, a position he has held since 1986.

“Our community colleges are facing both great challenges to preserve access but also great opportunities to provide the training and education for the technology-based jobs that are being created in our economy,” Mathis said. “Trustees are the ones who face the ultimate fiscal reality of doing more with less while ensuring that the gains colleges have made in serving the neediest students are not lost.”

Mathis, an MVCC graduate who also graduated from Utica College, joined MVCC as a trustee in 1977, per the release. He has served as VP of the board from 2002 to 2004 and 2011 to 2013, and has been chair of the board of trustees three times — with terms held from 1983 to 1987, 2004 to 2006, and 2013 to 2015. 

Named a “Living Legend” by the Oneida County Historical Society, Mathis has been a long-time member of many community boards, and currently serves on boards including Stanley Center for the Arts, New York State Workforce Investment Board, The Arc, Oneida-Lewis Chapter, Insight House, Oneida County NAACP, MVCC Alumni Association, and the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES School & Business Alliance Program.