Tom Russo

Born on the West Side of Chicago, Tom Russo grew up in the western suburbs of Northlake, Elmhurst, and Melrose Park, where he skated, dismembered things that rolled and competed whether it was scrimmage ball games on asphalt, dirt, or manicured ball fields or pulling a race car to Oswego Raceway.

He learned to skate in Northlake with his two sisters, waiting each winter for the creek to freeze over. Skating the length of the creek led to playing hockey as he met neighborhood boys. Over the years, he ice-skated and roller-skated both on both quads and in-line skates. Today, as he travels, Russo seeks out local rinks to skate and feels the skate culture of those rinks and the communities they host. His skates of choice are quads!

Russo currently is an instructor, trainer, and freelance writer. He has a degree in nutrition from Southern Illinois University, along with a master’s in community health. He also has a Master of Arts degree in homeland security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. As an adjunct instructor at Columbia College, he instructs courses on homeland security, emergency management, and epidemics and bioterrorism.

His freelance writing topics range from hobby to professional, as well from recreation to technical. Whether the topic is Corvette restoration and preservation or the health and medical response to public health emergencies, Russo has the ability to navigate the application of core principles of preparedness and share those with students of the profession. He has written at length on pandemic policy and preparedness. His most recent work a chapter on the COVID "Pandemic Response: The Logistics of COVID-10 Mass Vaccination" in a recently published book Immigration, Borderlands and the Resilient Homeland by Yoku Shaw-Taylor. He authored and self-published the Corvette Buildsheet Book: A Study Guide for 1973–82 Build Records.

Tom is a lifelong recreational enthusiast and a student of the coastal environment and currently lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He enjoys yearlong cycling, roller skating and the southern Lowcountry lifestyle that includes wandering the one hundred miles of the unpaved, untouched, undeveloped sixteen-thousand-acre refuge of Hobcaw Barony. He volunteers at Hobcaw as a docent and is a member of the Guestbook Research Committee. He has made a career of volunteer work and serves on the City of Myrtle Beach Bicycle & Pedestrian Committee.