Edmunds Turning MSOL Education into Professional Practice at Mercer University

CSU graduate Mat Edmunds learned much about administration, recruiting and leadership during his days in the Turner's College master's program in organizational leadership. A Director of Graduate Admissions in the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business at Mercer University, Mat is not only putting that education into practice, he is doing so in a way that reflects the program's emphasis on servant leadership. In addition to the duties one would expect of a business school's admissions director, those who have followed Mat's professional career (as Turner Business has) know that he has made a special effort in his position at Mercer University to assist K-12 educators who, as a result of the stress and strain that accompanies a career in primary and secondary education, have decided to transition into a new career in business or entrepreneurship. Mat's journey to get in the position to positively impact the lives of graduate students is an interesting one that begins at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, where he earned both a B.S. in visual and performing arts and a B.A. in sports management in 2002. After graduation Mat journeyed to West Virginia to become an assistant coach for the lacrosse team at Wheeling Jesuit University. After serving in this position for a year, Mat returned to North Carolina the become a resident director and assistant lacrosse coach at Wingate University. After the better part of three years, Matt ventured back to Lees-McRae College, this time as head coach of the lacrosse team, a position he held for more than five years. It was at this point that Mat came to CSU, first as an undergraduate recruiter, and later adding international students, dual-enrollment students, transfer students and graduate students to his CSU recruiting portfolio. Near the end of Mat's 10-year tenure at CSU, in 2019, he completed the MSOL program in CSU's Turner College. During his time as a graduate student in the Turner College he was Vice President of the CSU's chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management and an inductee into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. He carried his MSOL degree, and the academic accolades he earned alongside it, to Mercer University in 2020. Turner Business congratulates Mat on his professional career thus far and promises to keep its eye on him going forward.