The League of Women Voters Linn County has named Liz Mathis the 2023 Jean Oxley Contribution award recipient.
Liz Mathis is a former broadcast journalist, retired Iowa State Senator and past Chief Community Officer for Four Oaks and its affiliate agencies. Mathis also ran for Congress in Iowa’s Second Congressional District in 2022.
The League established the Jean Oxley Award in 2021 with the support of the Oxley family to recognize individuals for significant contributions of service in Linn County. The late Jean Oxley was a long time League member, the first woman elected to the Linn County Board of Supervisors and still the longest serving supervisor. She is remembered especially for her efforts in securing funding for the ARC of East Central Iowa and her help in establishing the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center to ensure minors are separate from adults.
In 2011 Mathis was elected to the Iowa State Senate and represented metro and rural Linn County for ten years. Senator Mathis had leadership roles in Health and Human Services, Agriculture & Natural Resources, Veterans, Commerce and Appropriations committees. Mathis helped form a children’s state mental health system and was selected as a legislative member on the Children’s Behavioral Health System State Board and the Iowa Economic Development Authority board.
She led or served on several legislative committees, but much of her work was done at home, outside the State Capitol. Mathis helped constituents with health resources, connections with government services such as unemployment and fought for Medicaid recipients during the state’s transition to managed care.
In her role with Four Oaks, Mathis worked on the leadership team for one of the state’s largest children’s mental and behavioral health agencies. Four Oaks and its affiliates have 16 Iowa program sites and more than 600 employees. At Four Oaks she helped formulate a new approach called TotalChild, led the efforts to raise $6 million for the approach and dug deep into solutions for housing issues and those effects on children.
Mathis’ prior work experience includes 27 years as a broadcast journalist at KWWL-TV and KCRG-TV and as a professor at Wartburg College, where she led the Department of Communication Arts as the McElroy Chair. Mathis was given the Jack Shelley award in 2004, the highest award.
The League of Women Voters of Linn County is a nonpartisan, grassroots civic organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Membership in the League is open to people 16 years and older, of all gender identities. With 100 years of experience, the League is one of America’s oldest and most trusted civic nonprofit organizations
LWV Linn County names Liz Mathis as 2023 Jean Oxley Contribution Award Winner
May 25, 2023