Russell R. Pate serves as a professor in the department of exercise science at the University of South Carolina, where his research is focused on physical activity and its promotion among children and adolescents. Also, he has worked extensively on initiatives aimed at advancing the role of physical activity in public health. Pate is a lifelong distance runner, and he has directed two U.S. Olympic marathon trials. Pate has served as president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, and the National Physical Activity Plan Alliance. He served on the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee in 2008 and 2018. Pate has been recognized by ACSM as its Honor Award recipient, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Pate received a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of Oregon in 1974. In his free time, he enjoys running, reading, theater, traveling, college sports, and spending time with his family. Ruth P. Saunders, a professor emerita in the department of health promotion, education, and behavior at the University of South Carolina, has taught and conducted research for over 30 years. She actively participates as a member of the children’s physical activity research group in the department of exercise science and as a co-investigator in Prevention Research Centers, a program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Saunders has conducted federally funded and foundation-funded research in schools, preschool centers, children’s residential homes, and churches. Her research interests, focused largely on physical activity in children, include organizational-level physical activity interventions, influences on physical activity, and monitoring and evaluating physical activity interventions in organizational settings. Saunders received her PhD in public health education from the University of South Carolina in 1986. She has received numerous teaching, research, and community volunteer service awards. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, yoga, writing, and painting.
