JOHN MATHIES is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve, having served in the Infantry on Active Duty 1985 – 1988, and subsequently served in the U.S. Army Reserve for over 22 years both as a Commissioned Officer and Department of the Army Senior Civilian Supervisor in three U.S Army Reserve command headquarters. He served in two different conflicts, the Gulf War in 1990-91, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Having served in these conflicts and managed senior level command staffs has given him a perspective that life is in large part learning about our mission(s) and primary purpose in this life, and dealing with people and their conflicts.
His military and civilian background of leading three different Army Reserve brigade level command headquarters over a span of two decades has given him a personal perspective on the complexity of people which made him interested in the concept of conflict management and resolution. John graduated from the Master of Arts graduate program at the Institute of Conflict Management, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN in 2015. This graduate program has facilitated his interest in writing about the core aspects of our innate spirituality and with conflict management from a spiritual perspective as well as through the means of negotiation in family and civil mediation. He raised four boys, and currently lives in Columbia, TN.