Joseph V. Russo, PhD
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
PhD – University of Nevada; Focus Area: Counselor Education and Supervision; Dissertation Title: The Effects of Social Media Marketing on Help-Seeking Behavior: An examination of the ethical dilemmas posed by the presence of psychotherapists on the various social media platforms.
MBA – University of Nevada; Focus Area: Social Media Marketing; Minor: Accounting and Finance
MA – University of Nevada; Subject Area: Educational Psychology; Focus Area: Marriage and Family Therapy
BBA – Accounting and Finance – California State University Northridge; Minor: Business Ethics
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES
2015 – Present Professional Life Coach, Private Practice, based in Laramie, Wyoming
As a Life Coach I tap my experiences in life as a professional mental health counselor and executive mentor (detailed later in this CV). Life Coaches are not that different from what you can expect from a mental health therapist. We engage our clients as they wish to be engaged, set goals and objectives for our work together, and offer alternatives approaches to the challenges wrought by life and career. Most of my clients are US-based (and most of those from around the country, not just in Wyoming), some are from Australia and Europe, and many have been with me for several years. The work is incredibly satisfying, and (I hope and pray) productive for both me and my client.
2015 – Present Lecturer, College of Education, University of Wyoming
Initially retained as an adjunct member of the faculty of the College of Education to teach, on an as-needed basis, various courses within its School of Teacher Education, I was asked to join the full-time faculty in August of 2024. Courses taught face-to-face include Professional Ethics, Foundations of Human Growth and Development, and Research Methods. Online courses taught include Foundations of Human Development and Research Methods. Teaching evaluations have been consistently high (averaging 4.8 – 4.99 out of 5, with 100% student participation in the evaluation process). In years 2018, 2019, 2020, and again in 2022, I was awarded the prestigious UW PIE Award recognizing my role in the Promoting of Intellectual Engagement of freshmen students at UW. In 2023, I received top honors as a Mortar Board-Top Prof here at the University of Wyoming.
Supervisors in this role: Dr. Scott Chamberlain, Associate Dean of the School of Teacher Education, and Dr. Jenna Shim, Dean of the College of Education.
2015- 2021 Part-Time Instructor, College of Business, University of Wyoming
2015 – 2018 Program Director, Distance Counseling Initiative, College of Outreach Studies, University of Wyoming.
The University of Wyoming, as one of America’s Land Grant Institutions, has long offered what used to be called “correspondence studies.” Of late, such studies have been offered online to non-traditional students residing outside of Laramie, Wyoming (the site of UW’s traditional campus-based, in-class teaching). Students online, however, are no less susceptible to mental health issues than on-campus students – suffering from maladies such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, relationship issues, etc. – but have been under-served by the counseling profession. The initiative, which ended for me in early 2018, sought to offer mental health services via online modalities through what has come to be known as tele-counseling, tele-mental health, and tele-medicine. At program’s completion, we served 86 students, accruing some 900 hours of treatment with a 100% return rate and zero no-shows.
2014 – 2015 Member, Board of Trustees, Counseling Association of South Australia
As a member of the Executive Governing Committee of this professional organization, I assumed specific duties as its Membership Convener, responsible for both clinical and professional membership applications, as well as renewal requests. Accomplishments during this time frame included a successful restructuring of membership categories to match those mandated by the country’s highest governance authority, the Psychotherapist and Counselor Federation of Australia (PACFA). I also drove a complete re-design of the Association’s database in support of the membership restructuring, and a complete overhaul of the Association’s social media presence and communication strategy.
I was also a professional member of Australia’s highest governance authority for mental health professionals (PACFA) and served on a special committee responsible for nation-wide implementation of codes of ethics, research standards, operational optimization, and governmental inquiries. Achievements included a successful reorganization of the body. Australia remains one of the few countries in the world which still permit professional bodies to self-govern. Also see Consulting Activities below.
2013-2015 Chair, Key Group N° 119, The Executive Connection (TEC), Adelaide South Australia.
I joined this executive coaching firm shortly after moving to Australia and assumed chair responsibilities for a group of mid-sized company key executives. A chair assists his clients to achieve greater success in business and personal life, acting as a: Business coach – Chairs have broad business experience and training they share with their clients to use in their organization; as a Mentor –a Chair act as a trusted confidant to help inspire, challenge and guide executives and leaders to greater personal success; and as a Change agent – Chairs inspire and assist their clients to tackle the tough challenges in their business and personal lives.
2013 – 2015 Marriage and Family Therapist, Adelaide, South Australia
Shortly after relocating to South Australia, I also began practicing as a therapist serving the greater Adelaide metropolitan area, as well as those located (in some cases) many hundreds of kilometers from Adelaide. My work centered principally on the needs of individuals, men in transition (from active working lives to retirement), returning servicemen and women, couples in distress, and families. My theoretical orientation is based on the tenets of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. I pioneered distance counseling while in this role, seeking to serve South Australian’s living far away from the state’s capital. Their mental health needs were substantial during a time when traditional “bush industries” such as mining were undergoing a rapid decline.
2012 – 2013 Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for Student Learning Objectives
Reporting to the Vice Provost of the University of Nevada at Reno, I developed an entire program around the establishing of “student learning objectives” (SLOs) as a measurable indicator of student and institutional success.
2007 – 2013 Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Nevada, Reno.
As a full-time doctoral student at UNR, I taught eight undergraduate and graduate-level courses in educational psychology, organizational psychology, counselor ethics, and financial management in the mental health care sector.
2002 – 2006 Regional Vice President, Xerox Business Services, San Francisco.
I began work at Affiliated Computer Services (now a part of Xerox) in 2002 as a senior manager responsible for new business development. In 2004, I became the first Strategic Business Unit Manager appointed by ACS to look after its relationship with key national and international accounts (in my case, American President Lines in Oakland, California, an account worth some $27M to ACS worldwide).
I was awarded the company’s Rising Star® commendation in 2003 after a successful first year and the saving of a key piece of business in the firm’s western region.
Later, in 2005, I was promoted to Regional Vice President for ACS’ west region, responsible for a budget of $170m, and an employee base of 1,700. As ACS underwent restructuring for its eventual acquisition by Xerox, I left the company and returned to graduate school full time.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES FROM THE DISTANT PAST
Senior Manager, Microsoft, Worldwide Licensing. (1990s)
Various Senior Executive Positions at Centergistic Solutions, Inc., Newport Beach, California. (1980s into the 1990s)
Accountant/Audit Supervisor, Grant Thornton LLP Certified Public Accountants (late 1970s into the early 1980s)
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE AND CAUSES
Member, Board of Directors, Wyoming Catholic Ministries Foundation – in this role, I served at the pleasure of the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wyoming, along with several other notable businesspeople from around the state as well as leading members of the priesthood. The Foundation is tasked with managing a sizable endowment dedicated to the furtherance of Catholic ministry in the state.
Child Protective Officer – Archdiocese of Adelaide, South Australia – Civil Rights and Social Action – in this role, I served the archdiocese in all matters pertaining to the protection of its children from abuse, both from within the Church and without.
Chair of the Board of Trustees – MetRX Foundation for Health Enhancement – With an endowment of US$1.2Bn, the Foundation had worldwide impact in the area of engineered food distribution into impoverished parts of the planet.
Chair of the Board of Directors – Lifesavers International – the original bone marrow transplant database formed in the late 1970s and later merged into America’s March of Dimes.
Member, Board of Directors – Nevada Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, a chartered state organization of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT).
CONSULTING ACTIVITIES
1997 — Consultant to The Red Rose Catalog, a specialty products catalog with distribution to 2.5m households in the US and Canada, on matters pertaining to a massive shift from an exclusively print media marketing strategy to a hybrid digital/print media strategy. I was engaged to optimize the Catalog’s fulfillment operations, then based in San Francisco, into a new distribution center based in Tennessee, rationalize digital subscription and purchasing methods to the new distribution center, and to make personnel recommendations for new management structures.
2009 — As a function of a grant awarded by AmeriCorps, I was asked to assist in anger management workshops inside of an inner-city elementary school in Reno, Nevada. Working primarily with 7th and 8th graders, the work consisted of group sessions with identified problem children with anger issues, as well as with interested faculty in the management of in-class challenges.
2010 — Informal consultation to the University of Nevada and its Downing Counseling Teaching Clinic, at the request of the Department Chair, as it sought to implement state-of-the-art real time monitoring of master’s student practicum activities involving both University students and members of the local community. I assessed existing networking and audio-visual infrastructure, recommended new infrastructure to support the new monitoring technologies (cameras in every treatment room, a central monitoring station, with links to professor offices for ad Hoc observation of activities).
2011 — Consulted to the Associate Dean (Dr. Thomas C. Harrison) for the College of Education, University of Nevada, Reno, on its CACREP renewal for the years 2012-2016; assisted the Associate Dean in compilation of all renewal application attachments, researched relevant data in support of the application, liaised to faculty whose classes required syllabi adjustment to CACREP standards, and other assorted data mining activities in support of the application process.
2014 — Consultant to the Psychotherapy and Counseling Federation of Australia, PACFA, as it moved to institute a variety of operational changes to conform to government requests, as well as a modernization and rationalization of its code of ethics to conform to the Australian Psychology Association Code of Ethics as well as to achieve some degree of fidelity to both British and American codes.
2015 — Consultant to Scaled Management Systems, a South Australian firm engaged in food and factory floor safety audits, to assist the company with a period of rapid growth. Work originally began as a function of my role as TEC Chair (detailed above in Professional Experiences) but was then engaged separately.
2018 — I led a team of, and was faculty adviser to, MBA Candidates engaged in a summer consulting project with Blue Federal Credit Union based in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Our work resulted in a detailed examination of credit union operational best practices and commentary on how to leverage Blue’s tremendous corporate culture into newly acquired banking units.
2019 — I led a team of, and was faculty adviser to, MBA Candidates engaged in a summer consulting project with Sky Dex, a $20mm company based in Denver, Colorado. Our work resulted in a detailed examination of alternative applications for the client company’s innovative mattress products. New markets and new products were extensively examined.
2021 — I led a team of, and was faculty adviser to, MBA Candidates engaged in a summer consulting project with Manufacturing Works (MW), a joint-Federal and State program aimed at increasing business presence in the State of Wyoming. Our work resulted in a comprehensive examination of MW’s outreach to both existing companies in the state, and those thinking of coming to the state, as to what brought them to the state and (more importantly) what keeps them here.
2025 — I was again engaged by Scaled Management Systems to assist in the formation of Florey Technologies LLC and to promote its products in the state of Wyoming.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Russo, J. V. (2011). Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference (June 2011). Master Student’s Psychotherapy Theoretical Orientation: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Decision-Making Process as to the Selection of a Counseling Theory of Choice. Cedarville, Ohio.
Russo, J.V., and Bruce, M.A. (2017). Matthew Shepard Symposium. Tele-mental Health and The Under-served in the State of Wyoming. Laramie, Wyoming.
Russo, J.V. and Bruce, M.A. (2017). Wyoming Counselor’s Association. Click here for help: Tele-Mental Health to Wyoming’s Rural Population. Cody, Wyoming.
Scull, W.R. and Russo, J.V. (2017). Distance Teaching and Learning Conference, 2017, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Innovations in Mental Health Care: Distance counseling at the University of Wyoming. Madison, Wisconsin.
Russo, J.V., Bruce, M.A., and Scull, W.R. (2017). Wyoming Innovations in Education Conference 2017. Tele-Mental Health Delivery at the University of Wyoming: Innovation in Motion. Laramie, Wyoming.
PUBLICATIONS
Russo, J. V., Bruce, M. A, and Scull, W. R. (2016). Click here for mental health support: Extending mental health services to the isolated learner. Recruiting and Retaining Adult Learners, 19(4), Josey-Bass: San Francisco.
Russo, J.V., Bruce, M.A., and Scull, W.R. (2017) in press. Tele-Mental Health at the University of Wyoming. Recruiting and Retaining Adult Learners, 20(1), Josey-Bass: San Francisco.
CERTIFICATIONS and AWARDS
Nationally Certified Counselor® (NCC), awarded by the National Board of Certified Counselor, Richmond, Virginia, upon successful passing of the National Counselor’s Examination (2012), maintained through year-over-year continuing education in ethics and clinical practice.
Rising Star® Award, Xerox Business Services, 2003, awarded in recognition of exemplary performance at this global outsourcing firm, then based in Dallas, Texas.
PIE Award™, University of Wyoming, 2018, awarded in recognition of my work to “promote intellectual engagement” of college freshmen students.
PIE Award™, University of Wyoming, 2019, awarded a second time in recognition of my work promoting the “intellectual engagement of college freshmen.”
PIE Award™, University of Wyoming, 2020, awarded a third time in recognition of my work “promoting the intellectual engagement” of college freshmen.
PIE Award™, University of Wyoming, 2022, awarded a fourth time in recognition of my work “promoting the intellectual engagement” of college freshmen.
PIE Award™, University of Wyoming, 2023, awarded a fifth time in recognition of my work “promoting the intellectual engagement” of college freshmen.
PIE Award™, University of Wyoming, 2024, awarded a sixth time in recognition of my work “promoting the intellectual engagement” of college freshmen.
A Mortar Board™ – Top Prof Award – University of Wyoming, 2023, awarded this honor in recognition of my positive influence on the lives of students at UW.
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
EDUCATION
— Joe Russo holds degrees in business and educational psychology: a BBA, an MBA, MA, and PhD
— Gained extensive teaching experience at the graduate school level, both in business and educational psychology
— Has gained extensive consulting experience to senior educational leaders, including a Vice Provost and Associate Dean.
— Award-winning teacher and mentor to incoming freshman students at The University of Wyoming.
BUSINESS
— In a first career, Joe Russo spent 25+ years as a leader in some of the world’s largest companies.
— Has had extensive board-level experience in the USA, Canada, England, and Australia.
— Strong technology background, with significant accomplishments in digital workflow design.
— Drove product licensing initiatives within Microsoft and other large technology firms in support of re-seller partners, customers, and partners worldwide.
— Chaired advisory committees within Microsoft in support of product partners worldwide.
— Years of experience at the “C-Level” including chief financial, chief operations, and chief executive, level.
COUNSELING/COACHING
— In a second career, Joe Russo has amassed 5000+ hours as a marriage and family therapist and life coach in the USA but principally through his work in Australia.
— Served as Executive Membership Director for the Counseling Association of South Australia (a professional self-governing board).
— Has a developed specialty within a theoretical orientation known as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.
— Pioneered distance counseling (or, so-called tele-mental health) in the state of South Australia, as well as at The University of Wyoming, serving clients located many hundreds of miles from an otherwise nearby therapist.
— Is now a practicing Life Coach in the United States.
PERSONAL
— Joe Russo has traveled and lived internationally, in six cities, five different continents, and four different countries.
— Known to be always available to staff and students and respected for a no-nonsense approach.
— His Gallup Strengths Finder® Top Five [1] are: Intellection, Input, Discipline, Restorative, and Activator.
— Married to Cindy, an Endowed Chair for Excellence in Literacy Education at the University of Wyoming.
— Interests include bike riding his eCycle, model railroading (a winter sport), and gardening in the summer months.