Dr. Robert Wallace was born in Gary, Ind. He graduated from Knox College with a bachelor of arts degree, from Northern Illinois University with a master's degree in education and from Western Colorado University with a doctorate in Educational Philosophy.

He was a teacher at Hiawatha High School in Kirkland, Ill., Phoenix Union High School in Phoenix, Ariz., and La Quinta High School in Garden Grove, Calif. At all three schools he taught English and was the varsity basketball coach. He served as an assistant principal at Pacifica High School and principal at Garden Grove High School, both in southern California.

Wallace is a member of the National Education Association and the National Association of High School Administrators. He has served on the Board of Trustees at Knox College, the Orange County (Calif.) YMCA Board of Directors, The Galesburg (Ill.) Youth Athletic Association, and as a youth counselor at a psychiatric hospital in California.

The Stuttering Foundation of America selected him Print Journalist of the Year in 1997.