Janice Mathis, Legal Counsel, Vice President of CEF and Executive Director

As Vice President for Legal Affairs for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Janice L. Mathis has negotiated diversity and inclusion agreements with Fortune 500 companies including Toyota, Nationwide, John Deere, Cooper Tire, and General Motors. She serves on the Georgia Power Company Diversity Advisory Council and is a former member of the Coca-Cola Supplier Diversity Council. Today she is helping families avoid foreclosure. Janice and her sister, Davida Mathis, host “Sisters in Law” on News and Talk 1380 WAOK in Atlanta. She is a member of the Athens Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta and serves on the sorority’s national Social Action Commission. Janice formerly served as a member of the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee and on the national board of the League of Women Voters of the U.S.

She is included in several editions of the Most Influential Blacks in Atlanta, including this year’s section featuring Female Powerhouses. In 2009, she was named one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Atlanta by Rolling Out magazine and received the Fannie Lou Hamer award from UFCW. In 2008, the Georgia Informer named her one of the 50 most influential women in Georgia. The Gate City Bar presented her its R.E. Thomas Civil Rights Award in 2009. In 1996, she was a Centennial Olympic Community Hero and carried the Olympic Torch a portion of its way through Athens, Georgia. Good Housekeeping included Mathis on their list “One Hundred Young Women of Promise” in 1989. She is a graduate of Leadership Georgia and has received numerous other awards.

She earned Bachelors of Arts in both economics and public studies at Duke University. Janice studied British Politics and History and Oxford University in England and finished law school at UGA. Janice is an active member of Chestnut Grove Baptist Church, where she tutors the SAT and serves on the land and building committee.