Meet Ashley Rae Mathis

Notre Dame welcomes new head of school

Ashley Rae Mathis has a quick answer for the question on everyone’s mind: How will she replace Mary Beth Riley as Notre Dame’s Head of School?

Answer: She won't.

"Mary Beth has left such an imprint on every level, not just at Notre Dame but in the entire community," Ashley Rae said. "Anybody coming in with a plan to replace her, that would not be a strategic way to do it. What I plan to do is add to what she does well."

As the school says goodbye to Mary Beth – who retired in June after 38 years, including 12 as head of school – here's the new leader we will get to know:

• A veteran in educational administration from primary school to universities.

• A former kindergarten teacher who since 2019 has helped to develop college-prep curriculum for girls as a senior administrator and director of admissions and enrollment at Ursuline Academy of Dallas, a Catholic school with an enrollment slightly larger than Notre Dame's.

• A professional with two communications degrees who worked for international consulting firm Bain & Company, using data and processes to recruit, train and retain the best talent.

• And, above all else, the child of Dr. Beverly and Raymond Mathis, who raised their two daughters and lifted their Las Vegas community around the guiding lights of family, faith and education.

"She has all the promise of the future in front of her," Mary Beth said. "Whatever it is that people like me or people who have been here for numerous years can’t imagine, she can."

Family Influence

"I feel completely blessed," Dr. Beverly Mathis said about her daughter’s new role. "Now, I’m always feeling blessed, but I especially, especially feel happy and proud of who Ashley Rae is."

Beverly is the youngest of Daisy and Tydus Green's six children. As a high school junior, she was part of the first year of integration in the late 1960's at Peabody High in Trenton, Tenn. After she and Raymond graduated from the University of Tennessee, Beverly found work in Bradford and was the school's first Black teacher. Her first day teaching, she said, "was the best day of my life."

Beverly spent 38 years in education, including 16 as principal of Booker Elementary, where she led dramatic improvements in student performance and teacher retention. In 2000, she received the prestigious Milken Family Foundation Award; upon being instructed by the governor of Nevada to use the $25,000 prize on herself – and not her school – she went back to college for her doctorate.

"They modeled kindness and working hard and giving more than you expect in return," Ashley Rae said of her parents.

Beverly carries the lessons from her own parents, who had third- and fifth-grade educations. Daisy and Tydus taught their kids to be honest, love everybody, say thank you, be respectful and "be the best citizens of the United States of America that we could be."

She added, "People say education is hard. Yes, it is hard work. But the part that you have to have first –and the part Ashley Rae Mathis has – is a heart. She has the heart for this work."

A Different Path

Around the nation, most heads of school come from careers rooted entirely in academics. Ashley Rae charted a different path in pursuit of her goal to lead a faith-based institution. She taught, she worked in university recruiting, she took a detour to Bain, she worked at the Milken Community School in Los Angeles and in 2019 she joined Ursuline Academy.

At Bain, she collected and reviewed data and created processes to identify job candidates. Much like admissions and academics, the challenge is to meld large-scale data with decision-making for individuals.

"Sometimes what schools are doing is working well, and sometimes it could be a timing thing. We don't always have 12-15 years to change something," Ashley Rae said.

In 2019 she developed and launched Ursuline's Community & Inclusion course, required for 9 th and 11th graders. She and other faculty collected data through surveys and informal discussions to shape the curriculum. As society faces more and different questions every year, the goal is to be responsive to what students from all walks of life feel right now.

"When we think about how we change things here to better serve our families of diverse populations, all of those decisions were made with data," she said.

Mark Fernandes, chair of Notre Dame's Board of Directors, describes Ashley Rae with two words: "thoughtful" and "engaging." Not only is she already working to absorb Notre Dame's Vision 2025 strategic plan – she's thinking about what 2030 will look like.

Mark said, "Engaging is about being a public speaker, but it’s beyond that. Little things like conversational pulse checks, talking to people in carpool lines, parent groups."

Mark views Ashley Rae's experience outside the educational setting as a plus. "The corporate experience really gives her the experience of the why, not just the what and the how. We can all say mission, which with a school like Notre Dame is very strong. But mission ties into why."

New Horizons

Beverly recalls being nervous telling the girls about a long-ago career move. Tya and Ashley Rae had always been students in the school where Beverly taught. But now, with Ray teaching high school and Tya making the jump to middle school, Beverly announced she was taking an assistant principal's job at a different school –which meant for the first time, Ashley Rae would go to her neighborhood elementary school.

"Ashley just interrupted me – 'Hooray! Now we’ll each be in our own school!'" Beverly recalled.

It's safe to say Ashley Rae will embrace this new setting, too. She has begun to scout the area for museums and hikes. Through multiple interviews and hours of research, she identified Notre Dame's appeal in tangible terms –such as smaller school size and urban campus – and has already made emotional connections.

"I'm so comforted and comfortable thinking that we are mission-aligned," she said of the Notre Dame community. "When the match is there, you feel all the feels."