Biography
Ray Mathis was born in Chicago in 1950 but lived much of his early years in Niles,
Illinois.  He attended Maine East High School, where he graduated in the top 10% of his
class in 1968.  He then attended the University of Illinois at Chicago and majored in
Psychology, Biology and Chemistry before transferring to the University of Illinois at
Champaign-Urbana to complete his Bachelor of Science in Health Education with high
honors in 1974.
He began teaching Health Education at McHenry Community High School in 1974, and
continued to do so for the next thirty-three years before retiring at the end of the
2006-2007 school year.
In the late 70's and early 80's he began a second career in emergency medicine.  He
became the first American Heart Association CPR Instructor Trainer for McHenry
County in 1977.  He became a certified Emergency Medical Technician shortly after
that, and immediately joined the all volunteer, non-paid McHenry Area Rescue Squad.  
He went on to graduate at the top of his paramedic class in the McHenry County
Mobile Intensive Care Program and to become certifed with the State of Illinois.  He
then became Advanced Cardiac Life Support certified with the American Heart
Association and went on to be Assistant Chief and training officer of his rescue
squad, and a paramedic instructor and evaluator for the McHenry M.I.C.U. program.  
He was the first paramedic to become certified to perform endotracheal intubation  
(ET) in the field and to perform a central venous system IV.
He retired from emergency medicine in the mid 80's to devote more time to his new
family and concentrate on his teaching career.  He went on to earn his Masters of
Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University in 1991.  Shortly after
that he started taking the first of 75 post graduate hours, 30 of which were in
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy and Education with Terry London from St.
Xavier University in Chicago.
He immediately recognized that REBT/REBE was what was missing from his health
education class and began developing what he later called The ABC System of
Cognitive Emotional Behavioral Self-Management and Self-Improvement.  This was a
new and hopefully more effective way to teach Health Education.
An article describing this new approach was published as the lead article in the
May/June 1997 issue of The Journal of Health Education.  It was entitled "What are
they thinking when they do something like that?  Using the ABC System of Emotional
and Behavioral Self-Management to Teach Health Education.  He began speaking at
state conventions of the Illinois Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation
and Dance (I.A.H.P.E.R.D.) and the Midwest Regional and National conventions of the
national alliance (A.A.H.P.E.R.D.).  He also spoke at colleges and to other high
schools, as well as his own staff regarding this new approach.
One of the other interests (a.k.a. passions) he began to focus on during the 90's
and into the next decade was his landscape photography.  He began it in the early
80's before meeting Jay by buying a 35mm camera from Sears and taking a six
week, 15,000 mile trip to all the best scenic areas of the western United States.  He
eventually moved up to large format photography in the early 90's and has shot that
ever since.  
As a way of giving back to something that has given him so much, he makes his
images available for use free of charge to all groups promoting conservation of the
natural world, and his images have appeared on the websites and in publications
of many such groups.


He stopped speaking shortly after that to concentrate on perfecting his new
approach, to begin working on a book about it, and to devote more time to his wife
Jay and daughter Erin and other outside interests.
In the early part of the new century his photos started being published in and on
the front covers of magazines, books and calendars and as postcards around the
country.  In 2004, one of his images won the Grand Prize in the Illinois Department
of Natural Resource's Outdoor Illinois Magazine photo contest, and another image
appeared on the cover of their first annual all photo issue in February, 2005.  In that
same year, one of his images won the Grand Prize of the National Landscape
Conservation System's national photo contest, and another image won the Utah
state Grand Prize for the same organization.  His images have since appeared often
in Chicago Wilderness magazine and on the covers of Outdoor Illinois.  In
December, 2008, his images were on the covers of the winter issues of both
Chicago Wilderness and Outdoor Illinois.
He retired from teaching Health Education full-time for 33 years at the end of the
2006-2007 school year, with hopes of beginning a speaking career to share what
he'd learned and developed with teachers and students across his state and the
country.  He wrote and self-published "It's just an EVENT, It's your CHOICE how you
want to feel" shortly after that and is now offering to speak FREE to any school,
church, civic group or business that will have him.  A new version of the book has
been recently published by PublishAmerica in June, 2009, and is not available at
Barnes and Noble online, and Amazon.com.
Resume

             B.S. Health Education               
University of Illinois

M.A. Curriculum and Instruction
Concordia University

75 Post Graduate Hours
St. Xavier University
30 Post Graduate Hours in Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
Primary Certification in REBT

Health Education Instructor 33 years
Certified Paramedic (retired)
Paramedic Instructor, McHenry County M.I.C.U. (retired)
McHenry Area Rescue Squad (retired)

Award-winning professional landscape photographer

Speaking Experience
Illinois School Health Association State Convention
American School Health Association National Convention
Illinois Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance State Convention
American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Regional Convention
American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance National Convention