After serving in the Air Force from 1968 to 1972, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, Russ obtained his Bachelor's Degree from the University of North Carolina in 1973.  He received his Master's Degree in 1975 and his Ph.D. in 1977 in Clinical Psychology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He then attended the Oregon Health Sciences University for internship training in developmental, learning, and behavioral disorders of children.  Thereafter, he joined the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Children's Hospital where he founded the Neuropsychology Service and served as its Chief until 1985.  He then moved to the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he served as the Director of Psychology for more than 15 years (1985-2000) and established the research clinics for both child and adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders.  In 2002, he relocated to the Charleston, SC region.

Russ is a Diplomate in three specialties, Clinical Psychology (ABPP), Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN, ABPP).  He is a clinical scientist, educator and practitioner who has authored, co-authored, or co-edited more than 20 books and clinical manuals.  He has published more than 230 scientific articles and book chapters related to the nature, assessment, and treatment of ADHD and related disorders.  His most recent books include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (2nd ed., 1998), Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete Authoritative Guide for Parents (2000, 2nd ed.), Defiant Children:  A Clinician’s Manual for Assessment and Parent Training (2nd ed., 1997), and Child Psychopathology (2003), and Your Defiant Child: Eight Steps to Better Behavior (1998). In 1993, he founded a bimonthly newsletter for clinical professionals, The ADHD Report (Guilford).  He has created seven professional videotapes on ADHD and defiant children, three of which have won national awards, including the 1992 and 1994 Golden Apple Award for educational videos from the National Education Association.

Russ has served on the editorial boards of 11 scientific journals and as a reviewer for numerous others. He was the President of the Section of Clinical Child Psychology, Division 12, of the American Psychological Association (1988), and was President of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (1991).  Russ has presented more than 600 invited workshops, public addresses, and scientific presentations internationally, including in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Israel, Russia, Kenya, Venezuela, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Spain, Italy, Canada, and Great Britain.  He has appeared on the nationally televised 60 Minutes, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, and many other programs on behalf of those with ADHD. In 1994, he received the Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and in 1996, he was awarded the C. Anderson Aldrich Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for his research career in child development. In 1998, he received the Award for Distinguished Contribution to Research from the Section on Clinical Child Psychology, (now Division 53) of the American Psychological Association.  In 2002, he received the Dissemination Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, Division 12, of the American Psychological Association for his career long efforts to dispel misconceptions about ADHD and to educate the public and other professionals about the science of this disorder.

(More information about Russ' distinguished career can be found at http://www.russellbarkley.org/about-dr-barkley.htm.)

[Ed Note: Russ is perhaps best known as the bass player in the original Tuesday Boots!  (See photo at http://www.surrattsville.org/images/photos/gen2008/tuesdayboots.jpg.)]

Rick Lifton

RICK LIFTON, M.D. (71), an internationally recognized expert on hypertension, is Sterling Professor of Genetics, Medicine and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Chair of the Department of Genetics, Director of the Lifton Lab, and Director of the Yale Center for Human Genetics and Genomics at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Earlier this year, Rick was awarded the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences for discovering genes that cause many forms of high and low blood pressure.  Rick joins a very distinguished roster of past Wiley Award recipients, among them Nobel Prize-winning scientists Andrew Fire, Craig Mello and Robert Horvitz.  The Wiley Prize recognizes contributions that have opened new fields of research or have advanced novel concepts or their applications in a particular biomedical discipline. It honors a specific contribution or a series of contributions that demonstrate "significant leadership and innovation."

Rick has identified ten genes that cause very high blood pressure and ten genes that cause very low blood pressure. He also found that these genes are involved in the regulation of salt balance by the kidney.

“Dr. Lifton’s findings highlight the importance of dietary salt in the causation of hypertension, a major risk factor in cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death worldwide,” said Günter Blobel, M.D., chair of the Wiley Prize awards jury.  Robert Alpern, M.D., Dean of the Yale School of Medicine, said, “Lifton’s research has demonstrated unequivocally the importance of renal salt handling in the regulation of blood pressure. While hypertension can be due to over constriction of blood vessels or abnormal salt handling by the kidney, Lifton has found in multiple genetic causes of high and low blood pressure that the etiology resides in the kidney.  These findings have settled a controversy that persisted for much of the 20th century.”

Rick received his Bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College, and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University.  (Additional information about Rick's distinguished career can be found at http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/cardiovascular/lifton.html, http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/lifton_bio.html, http://www.med.yale.edu/genetics/fac/RichardLifton.php, and http://info.med.yale.edu/bcmm/RPL/index.html.)

Dave Decenzo

DAVE DECENZO. Ph.D. (73) has served as the President of Coastal Carolina College since 2007.  Dave joined Coastal's administration in 2002 when he was named dean of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration. He was named provost and senior vice president of academic administration in May 2006. Before joining the Coastal faculty, Dave served as director of partnership development in the College of Business and Economics at Towson University from 1999 to 2002.

Dave earned a Bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Maryland College Park and a Master's degree and Ph.D. from West Virginia University.  An experienced industry consultant, Dave has served a wide variety of clients including Citicorp Global Technology, Moen Inc., Motorola and others.  His major academic interests are in human resource management, management and organizational behavior.  He is the author of textbooks that are used widely at colleges and universities throughout the United States and the world.

He serves on the board of directors of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Center, and he served a two-year term on the Conway Chamber of Commerce's board of directors.

As Dean of Coastal's Wall College, Dave led the move to establish a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program.  He also helped create the Wall Center of Excellence, designed to enhance and reinforce business students' skills through experiential learning. As provost, he instituted Centers for Excellence to support student internships, research and travel in each of the university's four colleges.

(You can visit Dave's Blog at http://www.coastal.edu/president/blog.)