Director and Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Endowed Chair
clay.mathis@tamuk.edu • 361-593-5401
Dr. Clay Mathis was named Director and Endowed Chair of the King Ranch® Institute for Ranch Management at Texas A&M University-Kingsville in July, 2010. As Director, Dr. Mathis leads KRIRM faculty and staff, and oversees teaching and outreach efforts of the Institute. He maintains and develops curriculum for the M.S. in Ranch Management degree program, and coordinates all service work for partnering ranches across North America. Dr. Mathis works closely with the KRIRM Management Council to identify subject matter for the entire suite of KRIRM lectureships and symposia aimed at educating leaders in the ranching industry. In addition, he serves on the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Beef Quality Assurance Advisory Board, United States Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, and as a member of the East Foundation Professional Advisory Group.
Alumni of the KRIRM M.S. degree program during Dr. Mathis’s tenure currently manage over 100,000 cows on more than 3 million acres of ranchland and wildlife habitat in 12 states; which includes managers of five of the 25 largest cow-calf operations in the United States. He has also led graduate students and faculty in the completion of more than 100 service–learning projects providing production and business management recommendations to partnering ranches across North and South America.
Dr. Mathis is a native of New Braunfels, TX. He received a B.S. in Animal Science and M.S. in the Physiology of Reproduction from Texas A&M University. In 1998, he earned a Ph.D. from Kansas State University in Ruminant Nutrition where his research focused on supplementation for grazing cattle. From 1998 to 2010, Dr. Mathis worked as a Professor and Extension Livestock Specialist at New Mexico State University. Dr. Mathis and his wife, Rhonda, are the proud parents of Morgan, Miles, and Amy Kaye Mathis.