Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. And you're listening to Who's That Star? On LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star? is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with the employees at the college. This is an inside look at LCC where you will have a chance to learn about their passions, projects, what inspires them both at work and in their personal lives. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander. I'm so excited to get a chance to talk to all the people who make LCC great. This show is for you to get to know the people that work at Lansing Community College a little bit more and see what makes them tick. Are you ready? Okay. Let's go see who's today's star. Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. and you're listening to who's at Star Trustee Edition on LCC Connect Atlanta Community College. Who's at Star Trustee Edition is a special segment where we are showcasing the members of our LCC Board of Trustees. You're getting an inside look where you get to learn more about their passions, projects, and what inspires them to serve on the board. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander. On these special editions, I have a special guest host to help us learn more about the board. Are you ready to learn who our special guest co host is? Drum roll, please. My special guest host is Dr. Steve Robinson, president of Lansing Community College. Dr. Robinson, welcome.

Hey, hey, hey, Lisa. I'm glad to be back. You know how much I love this show and it's so great to talk to our trustees. I'm really happy to be here with you and I'm excited for our conversation today.

I'm excited to have you here. So tell everyone, who are we talking about today?

Well, Lisa, today we get to interview the vice chair of our board, Angela L. Mathews. Trustee Mathews was elected to the board in November of 2016. In addition to being an excellent trustee, she also attended LCC, which I'm sure we'll talk about during the show. She's heavily involved in the community. She's a great ambassador of LCC. And Trustee Mathews, Lisa and I are really happy to welcome you to the show. Welcome.

Hey, hey, hey.

That's how we do it here. Hey, hey, hey.

I had to get in on that.

I know. I'm glad I had.

That's right. It feels good. It feels good to say that. So, Trustee Mathews, we're so happy you're here. And I believe you know Lisa. She's an academic advisor here and we'd love to just Start the show by asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, okay. Thank both of you for allowing me to be here with you and Lisa. Ms. Dynamic. I call her Ms. Dynamic because she was my academic advisor.

That's right.

That's right.

Isn't that something?

It is.

So I truly appreciate that. I hail from Muskegon Heights, Michigan and came here in 1984 on a scholarship. So I came to LCC way back then. I graduated with an associate's degree in human services. However, I went another direction after graduation into promotions and things of that nature. Connecting with the community, promoting gospel plays and jazz events. So I did that. And there's something I really like to tell about that. Because in 1992, back then, a lot of African American community members and productions were not held at the Wharton Center. It was just for whatever the reasons. So we brought one of the first well attended productions to the Wharton called Granny's Place, where we garnered about 1300 community persons to see that production. It was no headliners, we had no monies. We just had grit and feet and flyers and passion and passion.

Passion, that's right.

Yes. So I tell that story because I think that it's very important because today you have a lot of advertising dollars to do those things. But, you know, back in the late 80s, early 90s, you had to have grit and the passion and so on and so forth.

Well, and a great radio voice. I gotta tell you, Lisa and I were both intimidated when we were sound checking here. Cause you have. Your personality just comes through on these microphones.

All right, like, how long you been doing this? Because you've been on the air before.

Absolutely, I have been on the air before, but it's crazy to be on this side of the table.

I'll bet.

You know. Cause you normally interview people.

Cause I'm normally.

Yeah, okay.

On your side and Dr. Robinson's, but it's been a while. It's been a few years, let's just put it like that.

Well, you haven't lost it for sure. No, no, no. I wanted to ask you a question about your work at LCC and your role.

Okay. So the role here in being a board of trustee is for us to govern and to make sure that the college is in proper standings from a financial perspective and make sure that we're structured correctly. We have strategies, we have a vision that is going to impact those who attend LCC. And so I'm a believer that if you come here and you want an education, we will help you get to Wherever you want to be, whatever the goal is. Because two year degrees sometimes are not what some students come here for. They may come for a certification. So whatever you want to do, LCC is going to help you get there.

Yeah, that's right.

And so that's what we strive for with regards to having this board, collective board of dynamic persons, individuals. Yes. But collectively, we come here to do the work that we are elected to do.

Okay, I wanted to follow up. I just wanted to say, like, so that's the. What the board's role is. But I heard Dr. Robinson say that you were vice president. So does that have different duties that you have to do? Like, I know you take over if the president is in there, but like are you in charge of any committees or are you doing any different things like that?

Well, first of all, I'm not the president. That's the president over there.

Okay,.

We have that on tape, right? You said that on tape. No, Vice chair.

Oh, vice chair, Vice chair. And that's okay. So as vice chair. Yes, I am there and assume the role. If the chair is not there for whatever reason, sometimes the chair will release his role because he may want to say something and go to the podium. So come out of that role, release it to the vice chair, and then assume that role when he comes back. But as far as those duties, you still have to pay attention to what's going on. You still have to have a relationship with the chair and with the president because you want things to be in succinct and you always want that connection, that seemingly effortless connection. So it's not really truly just sitting there waiting for an opportunity to be chair. But the person still needs to be cognizant of what's going on. And the chair and the vice chair do have some conversations, interim conversations that maybe the board doesn't have at that particular point, because it calls for those people and the involvement of the president.

Yeah. And if I could add. So in addition, Trustee Mathews serves as the vice chair. Those are elected positions among the trustees. At the beginning of a term, they vote for each other. So the seven trustees elected Trustee Mathews to that position. The other thing that I'd love for you to talk about in answer to Lisa's question is how you. Your leadership with the foundation, in addition to being on the board of trustees, you play a role with our foundation board.

Oh, my goodness. Thank you, Dr. Robinson. Sometimes my mind is that of a community activist.

Yeah, you are.

So it's a little bit hard for me to kind of Talk about myself. Cause I'm always talking about other people and I'm always uplifting others. And that's what I love to do. So I do have been serving on LCC's foundation for I think about two or three years here. And so with the LCC foundation, they raise money for scholarships for our students. So we make sure that as much of a, you know, breaking the barriers to education that's possible. The scholarships we have, what, two, three million dollars we've given away. So it's a lot goes into that. In February, it's coming up, we sit down with quite a few people, community members, people who volunteer so that we can look over scholarships and award those scholarships. It's a very matric driven process as well as it's time consuming. But you get to learn the stories of the. When you're reading why they apply for the scholarship. And then also I do serve as the president of the African American Caucus on the national level of acct, the association of Community College Trustees. So I was elected to that position back in October of this year.

Oh, wow. Congratulations.

Thank you.

And I want to thank you guys because I learned something new. Right? Because I was saying vice, I thought like the president of the college, but then I thought you had president, vice president of the board, but his chair.

Some boards have that terminology, so you probably heard that at a school board or another college.

But ours, chair.

Ours is chair.

Okay.

Yeah, they interchange that just depending on the makeup of the board and what they want to do.

All right, cool.

But see, the heavy lifting goes over there. We want to push it back over.

There to Dr. Robinson and like, we're going to push the question back over there.

Yeah, we can do that. Thank you, Lisa. And I'm so glad that you mentioned your national role. I wasn't going to let us go to the next question without talking about. We were all so proud at the annual meeting of the ACCT when Trustee Mathews was elected president of the African American Trustees group at ACCT. There are 1100 community colleges in this country. That means there are thousands of trustees. And of all those thousands, Trustee Mathews is the president of the African American Trustees Caucus. It's a real point of pride for LCC. So congratulations.

Yeah.

Our studio audiences get in there.

I know they love it. They love.

They do love it. And speaking of loving it, our next question, Trustee Mathews, Lisa and I would really like to know what you enjoy most about being a trustee. What do you like most about your role here at LCC and being a trustee?

If the Audience could see my smile. I absolutely. You guys see it, don't you?

Absolutely.

I absolutely love serving and I absolutely love helping. And so being on this board gives that opportunity to serve and it gives the opportunity to be involved with legacy. Because LCC is blazing the trail of legacy in so many areas in so many ways. And so, you know, you learn about this. So when I'm talking to people, I can boast a little bit and be a little prideful.

She does.

And talk about what we do. And I promote it on my own social media page. Nobody tells me to do this because that's my love and affinity for LCC. So it's always from a servant, leader, perspective and role with what I do.

Have you learned anything since you've been on the board? Like, what's something new you learned? I'm sorry, I just was thinking like.

That's a great question.

Cause you're here like you've been in before you were on the board, different things. You just was a part of the community and you knew about LCC, but now that you're in this role, you get the inside. Yeah. What have you learned?

Well, what I've learned is LCC is a dynamic school to attend. They have well over 200 degree programs here. I did not know that. On the outside of the community, you hear about the ones that are kind of just the usuals. But to have over 200 as well as certification courses where students can come here, may not, you know, want to attend or enroll in the two degree programs associates, but can get their certifications and make more money than me coming out of. Coming out of these.

That's our goal. We hope all our students do that.

All of us. So. And that's great. It is. And the students with the hands on approach the smaller class sizes. It's just a really well structured curriculum school to attend and it's cost effective and efficient.

You know, before Lisa moves on to the next question, there's one aspect of something that I know you love about LCC that I'd love you to tell our listeners about. Folks who attend our board meetings or watch them on WebEx. They know that you love to promote the things that happen at LCC. So two things. One is you attend a lot of our events. I'd love you to talk about some of them. And also you're always promoting our president's report. So could you talk a little bit about some of the things you've attended. And then you're always cheerleading for our team members at the board meeting.

Yeah, well, I've been a cheerleader all my life, since elementary school.

I used the right word then.

Yes. It's. It's just in me and. Oh, the nurses pinning.

That's the last one I saw.

I went to the 110th Mid Michigan Police Academy graduation, which was at the west campus. Amazing. To find out what they actually do in their classes. It is about 17 weeks of hard training and learning and studying. It is really. And we are the. I'll say we are. We are the best.

I agree.

You know, we are. And they take those recruits and some of them start work the next Monday. You graduate on Friday, and you start work on Monday.

Wow.

Yes.

I didn't know that.

I didn't know that either. And I got to shake hands with each and every one of them. That was great. Now, the president's report, that's. That's a heartstring of mine.

It is.

Because if you want to know what LCC is doing, seriously, and who's doing what, because people are working and they're just doing what they do because they love it, that president report is going to tell you what all of the phenomenal things that we are doing, whether it's students, faculty, administration, we're on the national level winning awards.

Right.

The president is highlighted, and he's well respected. So in our business arena, small business area, they are doing phenomenal work. They are the ones that are helping, you know, this economy around here with helping small businesses and bringing those key businesses here where they're hiring people and they're hiring our people.

Right.

So, yes, I try to be at everything. I should have had a cot somewhere.

Yeah. We'll get you a little. A desk that we can take from event to event. Thank you for talking about those things.

I know as a staff person, I enjoy seeing the trustees at our different events.

Yes.

And you make sure a lot of trustees do. But I know for certain, I always see you at faculty events. I see you at student events, community events. And so I just appreciate it because you get a firsthand look to see the work that we do, and then you appreciate it, and it makes us feel good. So.

Absolutely.

I do want to say thank you for that. Great. What do you do outside LCC? Because I, like, I found out y' all don't get paid.

That's right. She did not know that these were volunteer positions.

You don't get paid. So, like, what do you do? And this takes a lot of time. So what do you do outside?

Well, actually, I was working a few things first of all, I worked within my church as an associate minister and then also I was working with the Urban Information Network, which is out of Detroit, Michigan. And so when the pandemic came, of course it threw everybody online.

Right.

And so it was the lead correspondent for that particular Internet based company. I was also working because I had a little time and this was close to my heart too. The COVID When Covid hit Covid, emergency relief monies we spent, I helped the company to spend like I think it was $50 million in rent and utilities, border water and light and consumers. Yes. Because that's really the core of me is helping people.

All right, what about outside of doing the committee work? Like you have family, children, you do anything like that? I'm just curious what some of you,.

You know, what do you do well with family? My family is still in the Muskegon area and so I do have five brothers and one sisters and I have a host of nieces and nephews.

Oh, so you came up here by yourself?

Yes. Oh, wow. Yes, I sure did. And so I am very much a family person and very rooted in my family. I am the middle child and I am the youngest girl. So I am the second mom bossing everybody around.

Yeah, right. That's important.

And so I love to. I love family, I love working in my church, but I also love serving the community. And so there are sometimes when I'm called in to speak, I'm called in to host, you know, an event or mc. An event. I do work like that as well. So I'm kind of a. They. They would say, you know, you're a jack of all trades, but, you know, kind of, I wouldn't say a master of none because it's some of those that I have mastered. So, you know, I just wear quite a few hats and I am just blessed to, you know, be able to go into any setting.

Yeah. Real community person.

Yeah.

You are assist.

Yeah. And also avid exerciser. We see out there walking. When we walk, my wife and I walk in the dog. We're on the same walking route.

Yes, we are. That was amazing.

That was great.

That was great. I like, you gotta exercise.

Well, I've been walking or something. One of my co workers, he's gotten us and advising to get out and walk. So we'll walk around the campus and walk around in the community and I really enjoy that. I wasn't a walker before. I was trying to find the closest parking spot. Now, you know, it's just with the pandemic, different things about Your health. So it is important and I'm working on it. So, yeah, that's good encouragement.

Yes. And let me say this. It doesn't matter. The age or it doesn't matter. Just where we are now. We have to have some form of it. Even children have to have some form of education. I mean, not education. Well, that too, but exercise. Exercise. Yeah, exercise.

Well, speaking of exercise, you get us exercised here at LCC by your passions, things that you're interested in. And so that's the next thing Lisa and I want to hear from you. Like what. What lights you up as a person. Because you're the kind of person, you come into a room, you're energized, you're ready, you know, we're. We're ready to do exciting things. And we know that you've got passions and things that light you up. What are the things that get you excited in life at LCC and outside of LCC?

Oh, what makes me gling Gling gline.

I remember that term. Gling gline. Now, did you make that up before? Is that your term?

That's my term. You will not find this in the dictionary anywhere. Okay.

That's an Angela L. Mathews trademark. Gling. And I think I spelled it right. G L I N G G L I N E Glinglein Glingl. So what gets you, Glenglein?

Well, you know what gets. When I walk into a room, I'm looking to see who is collaborating and operating with each other, you know, cooperating. I'm sorry. I love that. I love teamwork. I am a team oriented person. So when I see people looking, you know, working as teams and helping each other, that just, you know, puts a smile, you know, definitely on my face. So. Because I'm. That's just a part of who I am. My other passions is I love plays, I love concerts, I love music, and I love to dance, too. And I like people having fun because in our everyday lives, we have this seriousness that goes on. That's true with everything that we do. And so to be able to just relax and have fun with each other and to laugh, I think that is just so important.

That was one of the things I was thinking about when you said, have fun is because you came to our employee appreciation and you did karaoke, didn't you?

She did.

I knew. Cause I was kind of run.

In fact, a little story about that the karaoke machine was not working. It was not set up, but we needed to get it working so that Trustee Mathews could do karaoke.

And you know, you sounded pretty good. Okay. I'm not even gonna front. I was like. Cause I, you know, I'mma get up there and it's gonna be horrible. All the dogs are gonna bark around the world, but they're gonna. But I'll do it, you know? But I was like, wow, she can carry a tune and everything. So you sounded pretty good. So I was impressed with that. You're fearless in some areas. You know what I'm saying? And, like, coming up here by yourself to come to school and then stay in the community, that's fearlessness. And so where does that come from?

My mom. My mom is one of the most fearless persons that you could ever meet.

Wow.

She stands about 4ft 8, maybe 5ft tall. But all of our lives, I've seen her smack challenges in the face. And there has been a few brushes with death. And just to see her come out of those things has just instilled that in me. And then the other thing is her authenticity. She says, just be yourself. If you're yourself. If people, you know, like you, they'll like you. If not, that's okay, too.

Right.

Just continue to be yourself, because they will then sense the love and the passion that you have for others. And that is genuine. And so I just. I get that from her. And I always, you know, in this role as a trustee is that I think we do need to shed the jackets and the. I don't wanna say stuffiness. Cause I don't think any of us are stuffy. But we just need to relax and be ourselves and allow this campus family, whether it's student, faculty, staff, administration, to just engage with us from person to person.

Right.

And so that's how I am.

Yeah. You know, I can.

I can be that hat when I need to be a board of trustee, but I wanna be just person to person and human to human.

Yeah, we've seen that. So, I mean, we. At the kickoff party, I was watching you dance when I sat in with the band. We danced in New York.

Yes, we did.

At acct. That was a ton of fun.

That's always fun. I'm always trying to get people to come out and have fun because laughter, it does your heart good. You can laugh and dance and have fun and enjoy life. And I really, truly appreciate Dr. Robinson because I've never seen the president of a college play a bass.

Right.

And out there grooving it.

Yeah.

Killing it. You know, grooving and jamming with, you know, just being himself and allowing us to see a glimpse of him. And a part of him.

That's what I like. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I was gonna say I love that he's authentic. You're authentic. A lot of the different people, it was a joke that we had. I was like, well, I don't go around the board. Cause I'm not gonna talk to him. I don't want him to know me. But everyone that I've had the opportunity to interview, just really good people, nice, pleasant, care about LCC. And I think you have an opportunity to be authentic here. And that's what I really like about it. So I'm glad that you have brought that up.

Yes. And setting that tone at the board level that it's okay to be authentic, it's okay to be yourself is really helpful. Before we leave, this question about passions and what lights you up, there is one other thing I know you're passionate about, and that's our work in equity with students. And I remember when I first came to LCC, you were one of the authors of our resolution on racial injustice. And I wonder if you could talk about your passion for making sure that we have opportunities for all students to succeed on this topic of equity.

Oh, wow. So with the topic regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, you know, we see it around our own personal lives. Every day when we go someplace, we're meeting people who are different than us. Different color skin, different attire, how you dress, and all of those things. And so if we want to be a stellar community college and one that's blazing trails and opening up the pathway and the doors for anyone who wants to come to this college, we had to embrace it. We had to embrace it. And then we, as the board of trustees, had to be the leaders to say, yes, we are in support of this, and allow Dr. Robinson, who was coming in to give him something and a green light, to say, this is what we want to see. And we want to see you do something with it. Not just a piece of paper with some fancy words on it. It is a breathing document. And so that was important to do because the racial tension that was going on, and we don't know how our students are feeling with all of what's happening externally. They come here with things on their minds and hearts. How are we going to serve our students if we are not providing and letting them see us to say, we care about you, we know about this situation. We're concerned, and we're doing something about it. So you can come to this campus and see yourself. You can come to this campus and know that you belong and that people sincerely care about you because we got our own faces and names on the line.

That's right.

So you know, with that, DEI and I talk about this at acct. I don't let em off the hook. No, I'll say this is not trendy.

No.

This is gritty. It's painful, it's emotional. But it's the best thing that you can do if you even wanna solidify your legacy. This is the work that you do that with. And so I talk about it all the time.

That's why you the president vice chair now at the Act Zone.

Oh, that's right. She's the president.

African American Caucus. Yes, yes. And, and, and I'll say this, and I know that we'll segue a little bit out, but there are not a lot of people there. There are some people who are not doing this work and they will not do this work. They think that this is a minority issue, that this is a black issue, that, oh, it's going to go away. We don't need to do that. But they have the students, the diversity of students on their campuses, but yet they're not involved in this work. Make that make sense. It does not. So we could not afford to not do this.

Right.

It's something that we had to put our name and our face and our hands and our signatures to.

Well, I'm proud of it.

Me too.

Work. It's good work. It's hard work, but it's good work.

Well, time flew by.

It did.

It's time to go already.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we can have you back, right, Lisa?

For sure.

Hey, what did Mickey Mouse say? Now it's time to say goodbye to all our family.

That's right.

Well, I want to thank you, Trustee Mathews, for joining us and Dr. Robinson. This was fun. Let's do it again.

Oh, we will do it again, Lisa, We will.

This has been Who's That Star? Trustee Edition with our special guest Vice chair Angela L. Mathews and our guest host, President Steve Robinson. I'm Lisa Alexander, this is LCC Connect. Listen on demand at LCCconnect.org or on the air on 89.7 FM. You've been listening to Who's That Star? I'm Lisa A. and you can listen to this episode of Who's That Star? And other shows from LCC Connect anytime online at LCCconnect.org. Thank you for listening. Catch me next time to find out Who's That Star.