ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 8, 2011 – InVEST, the insurance industry’s premier classroom to career education program, recently appointed Lynn W. Mathis, CPCU, to its national board. Mathis is president and chief operating officer of Williams, Turner & Mathis, Inc. in Atlanta, Ga.
“InVEST is proud to announce Lynn Mathis has joined our distinguished group of board members,” says Heather Minkler, InVEST board chair and CEO of Clark-Mortenson Agency, an independent agency in Keene, N.H. “Lynn’s dedication to the industry through her leadership at the association level and as the principle of an independent insurance agency will be a huge asset to the InVEST board.”
Mathis began her insurance career in 1978 and became a principle of the Williams, Turner & Mathis agency in 1983. She has been an active volunteer with the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia (IIAG). Her first exposure to InVEST came when serving as chair of the Georgia Young Agents in 1991 when she chose InVEST as the chairman’s project. She then served on the National Young Agents Committee and was chair of that committee from 1993 to 1995. In 2000, Mathis was elected as the first female IIAG president and in 2005 she was the recipient of the IIAG Edgar Dunlap Award for Community Service. She was elected as Big “I” national director for Georgia in 2011. Mathis is a graduate of the University of Georgia. She and her husband, Russ, have two children.
“InVEST is critically important not just to the future of the independent agency system, but to the insurance industry as a whole,” says Robert Rusbuldt, Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) president & CEO. “Survey results from the Agency Universe Study by Future One (a collaboration of the Big ‘I’ and leading independent agency companies) pointed to InVEST as a solution to save the future of the industry, with a majority of respondents stating the insurance industry should encourage high schools and community colleges to help students plan for insurance careers. Educators, volunteers, agents and industry leaders, like Lynn Mathis, are key to the success of this program.”
As a 501(c)(3) educational trust, InVEST benefits from the support of numerous insurance organizations, hundreds of agencies, brokers and volunteers. The program provides the insurance industry with motivated, talented and intelligent professionals through a support structure of state associations, board members, national staff, teachers and the many industry professionals who work in the field as classroom liaisons.
Founded in 1970 and based in Alexandria, Va., InVEST promotes insurance education in order to attract individuals to pursue a career in the insurance industry. Each year, the program prepares thousands of students for insurance-related careers with a hands-on curriculum taught in high schools, adult education centers and community colleges. The high school curriculum is a business-education program that utilizes a hands-on approach which simulates an insurance agency and company operations to prepare students for various business careers and create more knowledgeable insurance consumers. At the college level, InVEST is an information-intensive curriculum of risk management and financial services. These courses provide students with a working knowledge of the basics needed to pursue careers in the insurance industry. For more information, go to www.investprogram.org.
Founded in 1896, the Big “I” is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life, health, employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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