Prof. Mayes joined Georgia Southern University in 2011 and retired in 2024.

— Biography from the 2024 Spring Commencement program —

Dr. Mayes earned a BSE in Teaching Mathematics (1979) and MS in Mathematics (1981) from Emporia Kansas State College and his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction (1989) from Kansas State University. Dr. Mayes joined Georgia Southern University in 2011 and, over the past 13 years, he has engaged in efforts to increase research and grant submissions from the College of Education and conducted his own research, securing numerous grants. In 2012 he was asked to create an interdisciplinary STEM center serving Georgia Southern. He served as the Director for the Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education from 2012-2017, developing interdisciplinary collaborations across colleges, supporting interdisciplinary STEM grant submissions, and providing outreach in interdisciplinary STEM through the STEM Fest at Georgia Southern and through STEM nights at regional schools. He served on the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education (QUBES) project, a national effort to integrate quantitative reasoning into undergraduate biology. QUBES is still active as a BioQUEST project and led to his extended research on quantitative reasoning in biology which included multiple universities. He is currently collaborating with researchers at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln on developing QR measures and researching the current state of Quantitative Biology implementation at universities. He has collaborated on the state level, including partnering on GearUp Georgia to provide professional development to STEM teachers across Georgia. From 2019-2023, Dr. Mayes served on the national level as a National Science Foundation Program Officer, where he led the Presidential Awards programs for STEM teaching (PAEMST) and STEM mentoring (PAESMEM), hosting two national recognition ceremonies in Washington, D.C. While at NSF, he also served on the Racial Equity grant program from its inception, the Noyce program, the Hispanic Serving Institutions program, and the Understanding Roles of Life Biology program. He also served on cross directorate programs for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), on the Convergence Education Working Group, and the Quantum Science Working Group. For these many contributions to Georgia Southern and to STEM education, Dr. Mayes is deserving of the title Research Professor Emeritus in the College of Education.*