Duke University

Matt is a native New Englander, growing up just outside of Boston. For college he decided to try something new and headed south to attend Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, Matt grew tremendously in his faith in Jesus through the presence of RUF and a strong community of Christian friends. He also met his wife, Bethany. They got married shortly after college and moved to Charlottesville, VA, where Matt served as the RUF intern at the University of Virginia and Bethany worked at a start-up pharmaceutical company. After an unexciting year in an office job for Matt, the Mahlas moved to Boston for Matt to attend Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and for Bethany to teach at an urban charter school through Teach for America. The Mahlas had Vance in 2016, and Elise followed after in 2018. Matt graduated from Gordon-Conwell with a Masters of Divinity and an MA in Counseling and worked for a year as a social worker in Boston. He became the RUF Campus Minister at Duke in 2018.

Matt’s favorite part of being the campus minister is hanging out with Duke students - he says it every week in large group! So hit him up for lunch, coffee, a run, the driving range, anything. The whole family loves to have Duke students over, so definitely head to their house for a Monday Night Dinner. When not on campus, you can find Matt exploring new places with Bethany, chasing after his kids, running, cooking, getting depressed watching Vanderbilt sports, or chipping plastic golf balls in his yard in hopes of one day actually being good at golf.