Dr. Matthew K. Boggan
Contact Information
About
Biography
Dr. Matthew Boggan is chair of the Department of Special Education and Social Foundations at Georgia Gwinnett College, where he has built his career around a single conviction: every student, regardless of ability, deserves access to excellent teaching. He holds an Ed.D. from Nova Southeastern University and brings more than three decades of experience spanning K-12 classrooms, school administration and higher education leadership.
Academic Leadership
Boggan joined GGC in 2016 after leading dual graduate and undergraduate programs at Mississippi State University's Meridian Campus – overseeing educational leadership at the graduate level and special education curricula at the undergraduate level. He served as interim chair of Special Education from 2021 to 2022 before being named chair of the Department of Special Education and Social Foundations in 2024.
His interim term left a lasting mark. Working with data from the Gwinnett County School District's Department of Special Education, Boggan identified a sharp rise in autism diagnoses among students and led the effort to prepare teachers for it. By 2022, GGC had built an autism endorsement into its special education curriculum, and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) approved it as a standalone credential available to certified teachers statewide.
Grounded in the Classroom
Before higher education, Boggan taught special education and served as a public-school principal across Starkville, Oxford, Meridian, and Weir, Mississippi, and Plano, Texas. As principal at Weir School (Choctaw County Public Schools), he successfully lobbied to replace a nearly century-old building and student trailers with a new facility. As an administrative intern in the nationally recognized Plano Independent School District, he learned the level system, a structured approach to behavior management, and brought it back to Weir to help both general and special education students navigate behavioral challenges.
That firsthand experience – teacher, principal, administrator – still shapes how he teaches today.
Grant Leadership
Boggan's record as a grant leader spans two decades. From 2009 to 2016, he served as principal investigator on a program that generated 151 scholarships for teachers entering the profession through alternate-route certification. From 2017 to 2018, he led a Community Innovations Grant in Gwinnett County designed to broaden GGC students' understanding of adults with disabilities and their capabilities.
Service and Scholarship
He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and maintains an active national conference presentation record. He has served as an external evaluator for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) for institutions seeking initial program accreditation in educational leadership programming and as a reviewer for the National Field Experience Journal and National Field Experience Conference. He previously served three years as promotions and credentialing chair for GGC's School of Education. As a program partner with Gwinnett County Public Schools, Boggan supplies data that helps the district secure scholarship funding for its own paraprofessionals.
Why He Does This Work
In 1997, one of Boggan's K-12 students was selected from more than 2,300 nominees to receive the Council for Exceptional Children's "Yes I CAN Award" at its national conference, recognized for remarkable growth in self-help skills. It's a memory he still returns to.
Today, that same commitment drives his work with GGC's special education students, most of whom are already working as paraprofessionals in local school districts. Boggan teaches from experience, not theory alone – and for a cohort of students living a version of his own journey, that makes all the difference.
Education
- Doctorate – education with educational leadership concentration – Nova Southeastern University
- Master's – special education – Mississippi State University
- Bachelor's – special education – University of Mississippi
- Post-graduate work – University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, Harvard University
Academic Interests
- Special education
- Teacher mentoring
- Educational leadership
Courses Taught
- Introduction to Emotional Behavior Disorders (EBD)
- Educational Environments and Planning for Students with Mild Disabilities
- Assessment and Progress Monitoring of Students with Disabilities
- Student Teaching: Professional Practice of Special Education
- Student Teaching: Planning and Assessment of Special Education
- Enhancing the Lives of Adults with Disabilities through Film, Art, and Education
- Introduction to Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis
Funded Grants
- Boggan, M., Lee, C., and Shim, Y. (2017). The GGC Next Stop Project: Enhancing the lives of adults with disabilities through Art, Film, and Education. Funded through the GGC College Community Innovations Project (CIP), GGC Center for Teaching Excellence.
- Boggan, M., Jayroe, T., Burroughs, S., Cornelious, L., Forde, C., Karriem, D., and Pope, M. (2009-2016). Learning and Educating through Alternative Programs (LEAP). U.S. Department of Education, 2.94 million.
Distinctions
- 2015 Mississippi State University, Office of Research, Meridian Campus Research Award
- 2013 Mississippi State University, Leadership Academy, Faculty Leadership Award
- 2012 Mississippi State University, College of Education, Adkerson Outstanding Faculty Award
- 2010 Mississippi State University, Meridian Campus Division of Education, Outstanding Service Award
- 2010 Mississippi State University, College of Education, Worth-Bagley Outstanding Faculty Award
- 1993 North Mississippi Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled, Employee of the Year Finalist
Publications
- Boggan, M., Pope, M., Jayroe, T., & Wallin, P. (2016). Mentoring of T2T (Transition to Teaching) Alternate Route Special Education Scholars in High-Needs Schools. National Forum of Special Education Journal, 27(1), p. 1-13.
- Boggan, M., Jayroe, T., & Alexander, B. (2016). Hitting the Target with Transition to Teaching in Mississippi’s Poorest Districts: High Retention Rates through Program Support, Resources, and Strategic Recruiting. Journal of the National Association for Alternative Certification (JNAAC), 11(1), p. 1-9
- Boggan, M. & Wallin, P. (2016). Under the Microscope: Principal Perceptions of the Mississippi Statewide Teachers Assessment Rubric (MSTAR), a Pilot-Year Study. Excellence in Education Journal, 5(2), p. 1-53.
- Wallin, P. & Boggan, M. (2015). The Impact of Formal Teacher Mentor Training to Scaffold Beginning Teachers in K-12 Settings. International Journal of Education and Social Science, (2), 2, p. 1-19.
- McCarty, D., Wallin, P. & Boggan, M. (2014). Shared Leadership Model for 21st Century: Principal and Counselor Collaborative Leadership. National Forum for Administration and Supervision Journal, 32(4), p. 1-8.
- Wallin, P. & Boggan, M. (2014). Transforming School Leadership with ELCC Standards and Best Practices: Perceptions, Ideas, and Suggestions for the 21st Century. Field Experience Journal, 13(1), p. 39-60
- Boggan, M. & Jayroe, T. (2012). Recruiting and Retaining Quality Teachers in Mississippi through Learning and Educating through Alternative Programs (LEAP). London International Conference on Education’s International Literacy and Computer Education Journal. 3(3), p. 1-8.
- Boggan, M., Harper, S., & Whitmire, A. (2010). Using Manipulatives to teach Elementary Math. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 3(1), p. 91-95.
- Boggan, M., Harper, S., & McAlister, K. (2010). Achieving Mathematical Concepts One Word at a Time. Field Experience Journal, 6(1), p. 19-28.
- Smith, I. & Boggan, M. (2010). New Learning Systems for a Cybernetic Culture. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 14(4), p. 7-13.
- Tucker, C., Boggan, M., & Harper, S. (2010). Using Children’s Literature to teach Measurement. Reading Improvement. 47(3), p. 154-161.
- Harvey-Woodall, A., Smith, I., & Boggan, M. (2009). Working against student achievement: Factors that hinder school success. National Rural School Leadership Journal, 1(1), p. 1-7.
- Boggan, M., Jayroe, T., Blackbourn, R (2009). Effects of Resiliency Training in a Rural Mississippi School. National FORUM of Educational Administration and Supervision Journal. 27(1), pp. 18-39.
- Pope, M., Jayroe, T., Boggan, M., Franz, D. (2008). Teacher candidates and interactive mathematics. Journal of Rural Education Policy & Practice, 1(3), p. 1-17.
Presentations
- Boggan, M. (December, 2015). Components for Equity and Excellence in Education: Recent Case Laws in Special Education, Teacher Resilience, and Co-Leadership. KEYNOTE SPEAKER, T.K. Martin Center and TEAM AUTISM GPS State Conference at the Silver Star Casino Convention Center in Philadelphia, MS.