State Rep. Karen Mathiak: From Chiropractic Care to the Capitol

Georgia State Rep. Karen Mathiak has represented communities in Fayette and Spalding counties at the Capitol for nearly a decade, but her approach to public service was shaped long before she was elected to House District 82. The Georgia General Assembly currently lists Mathiak as the representative for District 82, covering portions of Fayette and Spalding counties.

For Mathiak, public service began decades earlier — in a chiropractic office, in her son’s elementary school, on professional boards, and around the family members who needed someone willing to step in and help.

Those experiences have shaped the way Mathiak approaches her work today: listen first, figure out where the problem is, and then use whatever tools are available to help solve it.

“I want them to know that I do listen,” Mathiak said of the people she represents. “I don’t always have an answer. Sometimes I have to dig for an answer, as well as they may have already. But I want them to know that I truly do care. And when Georgians hurt, we all hurt.”

Mathiak was born and raised in Riverview, Michigan. She attended college there before moving to Georgia in 1980 to attend Life University in Marietta and become a chiropractor.

The profession had interested her since she was a teenager. After having her tonsils removed at 13, Mathiak said she struggled for years with repeated sinus infections. Someone close to the family who was attending chiropractic college suggested she give chiropractic care a try.

Within months, she said she could tell a difference.

“I watched people get well that their bodies could heal,” Mathiak said. “So chiropractic was just a great fit for me.”

Georgia proved to be a fit, too. Mathiak stayed, eventually settling in Griffin and opening her practice in the mid-1980s. Over roughly four decades, she has cared for patients ranging from newborn babies to people in their 100s.

Running that practice also gave her firsthand experience with something many legislators understand well: balancing the demands of a business with the demands of public service.

Mathiak has been married to her husband, Marty, since 1974. They met when they were 17 and married at 18. Marty, now retired, worked for Americold. The couple later became foster parents and adopted their son, Michael, when he was 8.

In an unexpected bit of symmetry, Michael had been born in Wayne County, Michigan — the same part of the country Mathiak herself came from before building a life in Georgia.

Her family life also brought Mathiak into another form of community involvement. When Michael was in elementary school, a teacher encouraged her to join the PTO. She did, discovering that leadership sometimes looked less like holding a title and more like speaking up when she thought something could be done differently.

That instinct to get involved continued.

Mathiak became active in Republican Party leadership and later received an appointment from then-Gov. Sonny Perdue to the Georgia Board of Chiropractic Examiners. She served on the board for about 15 years, including roughly 12 years as chairman.

Her work also took her to the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners, where she participated in exam development and helped work on an ethics and boundaries examination for healthcare providers.

For Mathiak, those years were more than professional credentials.

“It’s an honor more than anything,” she said.

When she qualified to run for the Georgia House in 2016, Mathiak had to step down from the examining board. She was elected that year and sworn into office in 2017.

Her reason for running, she said, was straightforward: she believed it was time for a change in representation.

A decade later, Mathiak says some of the work she values most is not necessarily the legislation that attracts headlines. It is helping constituents navigate a government system that can be frustrating and difficult to understand.

“Just being able to, you know, having the connections at the state level to help people where they are on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “Yes, it’s important to make new law that helps us run a much better state. But at the end of the day, it’s about helping those moms that are having trouble, single parents that are having trouble making ends meet and being able to work through some Medicaid issues or just insurance issues, just day-to-day stuff that people have trouble with that can’t get through the minutia of how government works.”

Healthcare remains one of her central interests at the Capitol. Mathiak serves on committees dealing with healthcare and insurance, areas that closely overlap with the work she has done throughout her professional life.

She said she wants Georgians to have access to good healthcare, to understand their options, and to feel comfortable advocating for themselves and their families.

That concern is personal as well as professional.

Mathiak has spent significant parts of her life as a caregiver. She and Marty cared for an elderly aunt in their home until the aunt needed more help than they could provide. Mathiak also cared for her mother, who had ALS, before her mother eventually moved into a care facility.

Those experiences left Mathiak with strong feelings about the people who care for aging or ill family members.

“I just want people to realize and recognize when caregiving has gotten to the place where it’s detrimental to the caregiver,” she said.

She also encourages families to remain involved when parents and grandparents face complicated medical decisions.

Mathiak said an older adult hearing a cancer diagnosis or preparing for surgery may struggle to absorb everything being explained in the room. Having a trusted family member there can make a meaningful difference.

“I believe that we have got to stay connected with our families so that we do get good healthcare,” she said. “That we do hear the options that are out there for us, and to make a good decision.”

Her faith is another constant. Mathiak considers Rock Springs Church in Milner her home church and describes God simply as her anchor.

“I don’t know how anybody can make it through human life without some kind of spiritual anchor,” she said.

Mathiak describes herself as a conservative Republican who believes strongly in family, fiscal responsibility, and personal freedom. She also points to her work in appropriations for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities as one of her particular passions.

She believes government has a responsibility to remember Georgians who cannot easily advocate for themselves.

Outside the Capitol and chiropractic office, Mathiak admits there is not much spare time. Before being elected, she rode horses, learned to sort cattle, and played some golf. Those hobbies largely disappeared as legislative service took over her calendar.

She also hosts a sporting clays fundraiser for her campaign at Cherokee Rose in Griffin, an event she said she holds every year — although she readily admits she is not particularly good at sporting clays herself.

“I am not good at it,” she said.

Even her downtime tends to circle back toward politics, public issues, and conversations with people about what matters to them.

At 70, Mathiak says she is still learning — about healthcare, leadership, generational differences, technology, and even the elusive art of balancing work and family.

“I love my constituents. Make no mistake about that,” she said. “But there comes a time when your family has got to come first.”

It is a philosophy that connects the many parts of Mathiak’s life: chiropractor, business owner, wife, mother, caregiver, professional board leader, and legislator.

Different roles, perhaps, but a remarkably consistent job description — listen carefully, show up, and help where you can.