Love of community helped chart GCU medical director’s path

Atmosphere, school spirit drew Alumni Hall of Famer back to the university

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article was originally published in the April issue of GCU Magazine, available in the purple bins on campus and digitally.

While it’s common for alumni to muse on the changes at fast-growing Grand Canyon University, Dr. Matt Shores had a different diagnosis.

Sure, there weren’t many more than 1,000 students on campus when he earned his biology degree in 2000, and almost all his classes were in one small building that is now the Lope Shop, while today roughly 25,000 traditional students take courses across a sprawling campus of dozens of buildings.

“But the heart of the school – now that I work here – is very similar to when I was here,” said Shores, who returned to GCU in 2020 to become medical director of Campus Health. “(Back then), community was already a big part of the school. That atmosphere and spirit of the school is the same today, its commitment to the direction of a student’s career but also creating space around it.

“To me, it feels like a small community.”

Earlier this year, he was honored as one of four inductees into the GCU Alumni Hall of Fame.

“It was an unexpected honor when I got the email. I was nominated by (Provost) Dr. Randy Gibb, which was an honor in itself,” said Shores, who is widely known in the Valley for his sports medicine firms and as team doctor for high school sports teams. “They made us feel special for the day with my friends and family.”

His wife and all but the oldest of his children – ages 20, 18, 15 and 13 – witnessed his induction, a distinction that seemed fitting for someone who speaks so strongly of community.

Shores hasn’t strayed far from his roots along Camelback Road, where GCU is located. He was born in a central Phoenix hospital, raised off 19th Avenue, between Indian School and Camelback roads, which lines the south end of campus. And he attended elementary and middle schools in the Osborn School District nearby, graduating from Central High School.

It seemed natural to enroll in the then-small neighborhood university in 1996.

His first love was English. He wanted to be a teacher.

But he remembered, back in high school, when he shadowed a friend’s surgeon dad at a hospital and in the operating room. Shores began taking biology classes at GCU – and though he was just one course shy of a second degree in English – he instead chose medicine.

“I almost enjoyed (the English courses) more than the sciences. But I just like the missional aspect of being a doctor, the relationship aspect, the idea of helping people,” he said.

Shores completed his medical degree at the University of Arizona, his residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital and a fellowship in sports medicine at Arizona State University.

In 2010, he founded Sports Medicine Express to provide accessible care for athletes and became the director of sports medicine for FastMed. Then he founded another company, AlphaMed, which today includes four clinics in the Valley.

And he was team doctor for high schools such as Sunnyslope and Brophy.

“I just love sports – I played football and baseball growing up – and the community aspect drew me to it,” Shores said. “With sports, you are part of the community. The coaches, athletic trainers, parents, physical therapists, you really end up being a central part of the community in that role.”

The patient population is determined to get better “just to get back to what they are doing, whether basketball or tennis or volleyball, and I want to help them get back to that.”

When Connie Colbert, director for GCU Campus Health, offered him a part-time job as medical director at GCU, he found the same community spirit and determination to get healthy.

“GCU students are just really good kids. There isn’t a lot of bad behavior, cursing or negativity,” he said. “It’s the same in Campus Health. They are sick or injured and have every reason to be in a bad mood. But they are happy and optimistic.”

After going full time in 2022, Colbert said Shores became the first medical director, at least since she joined GCU in 2011. With his medical expertise, “faith background and desire to be part of GCU and as an alumnus, he was a perfect fit,” she said of his on-site duties to staff the clinic and oversee treatment plans.

The clinic sees a steady stream of injuries from an active campus of intramural sports and scooter accident injuries, he said.

“You want them to get back to intramural basketball or pickleball,” he said.

Now, when he walks down Lopes Way, it feels like home – not far from his home off Camelback Road and Seventh Avenue. He stops to talk to friends of his son who he coached in youth leagues, students he helped with sports injuries in the Valley or those who mentored his children in faith-based clubs in the community.

“One of things that makes it fun for me is I like to be part of a community,” Shores said of a place he’s always been near. “It’s a fun, full circle."

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