KSU Announces New Assistant To The President For Academic And School District Outreach

KSU Announces New Assistant To The President For Academic And School District Outreach

Posted on July 1, 2015

Kentucky State University has hired Vincent Mattox as the new Assistant to the President for Academic and School District Outreach.

“If we want to recruit the best and the brightest students in the nation, close achievement gaps and promote teacher education, we have to have a strong connection and relation with the best institutions. Mr. Mattox will give us the connection we need,” KSU President Raymond M. Burse said.

Mattox is an accomplished senior education administrator with more than 33 years of experience negotiating and strengthening the relationship between schools, communities and parents. He most recently served as Senior Director of Equity, School Support and Community Engagement for Fayette County Public Schools. In that capacity, he had responsibilities for the district’s Equity Council, Minority Recruitment and Retention Department, the Family and Community Engagement Department and the Community Relations and Customer Service Office.

Mattox’s role at KSU will encompass a spectrum of duties and responsibilities that include coordinating and facilitating communication between KSU’s departments and offices and local school districts and schools; facilitating outreach efforts to districts, schools and community groups; and working with district schools through their minority recruitment and retention initiatives.

His prior roles included Equity and School-Based Decision-Making Resource Specialist for Fayette County Public Schools, where he worked with schools district wide on legal policies and compliance issues, and facilitated training sessions for council members and their committees to better assist with policy development and school improvement planning. As Principal Assistant to the Associate Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education, he assisted professional development coordinators statewide by providing statute and regulation clarifications and networking opportunities to compile best practices from across the state. In addition, he managed the distribution of KDE dropout prevention funds as the statewide Director for Dropout Prevention.

When asked what intrigued him about the KSU opportunity, he responded, “Being able to bring my knowledge and experience from my work with KDE to KSU was a great opportunity to share best practices and research at the college level. Looking at the needs assessment for the schools and having a laser focus on the schools, community and districts is very unique.”

Regarding working as a part of President Burse’s team at KSU, he said, “I have had several conversations with him. He is very forward thinking from the school level on up. He wants to do all the things that will impact learning for our kids. He is one of the first to speak of the collaborative outreach.”

Mattox received his bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Virginia. He is a nationally certified trainer for “How Boys and Girls Learn Differently” by the Gurian Institute and the “Culture of Poverty” by Ruby Payne.

Mattox became an official Thorobred on June 30, 2015.