News Release

IWV Campus

Author & Professor Dr. Tripps to Speak at IWV

February 25, 2009

Noted author and professor Dr. Dan G. Tripps will be the guest lecturer on Friday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the College Lecture Center. His topic will be "Getting to the Heart of Success, characteristics of successful people." The public is cordially invited to attend. The event is presented by the Associated Students of Cerro Coso Community College.

Tripps has devoted his life's work to understanding the psychology of achievement and to helping individuals find greatness professionally and personally.

In his two recent books, In Search of Greatness: Attributes of Achievement and Lessons for Life (Town Books, 2002), and The Heart of Success: Conversations With Notable Achievers (Bainbridge Books, 2001), Tripps helps readers place their life journeys in perspective. He believes that people need to embrace the notion that they do not become great simply because their achievements have been broadcast on television or reported in the local paper. Based on his personal interviews with 160 acclaimed performers, athletes, and intellectuals, Tripps identifies qualities that ordinary individuals can develop in order to achieve personal greatness.

Tripps is Executive Director of the American Institute of Sport and affiliated human performance laboratory, and Chair of Seattle University's Department of Sport Studies where he teaches the Psychology of Leadership and Achievement. He has also been a guest lecturer on university campuses throughout the United States and has served as a consultant to education, business, and government, providing training for senior level managers, nurturing organizational leadership, and enriching employee skills.

In his early career, Tripps coached more than forty nationally and world-ranked athletes and guided high school, college, and U.S. national teams to championship competition. He continues to assist elite level performers as a practicing sport psychologist. From 1980-1984, Tripps was President & Executive Director of the 1984 Olympic Scientific Congress, the sport science research program affiliated with the Olympic Games.

In conjunction with his Olympic duties, Tripps founded Sport for Understanding, a U.S. State Department contract program that organized the international exchange of athletes and coaches. During 1984-1986, he served as its first Executive Director and later Trustee through 1992. In 1986, Tripps established Sports for All, a UNESCO program that brings technical training to teachers and coaches in developing countries.

Tripps joined the faculty of Seattle University in 2006 after serving as Chair of the Department of Physical Education & Exercise Science at Seattle Pacific University for twenty years. During that time he distinguished himself as a leader in high profile events including the 1987 Washington State Centennial Commission's Pacific Celebration and the 1990 Goodwill Games.

Between 1994-2000, he served as Director of the Raven Project, a joint effort of education and industry to design, build, and fly a record setting human-powered aircraft. In 2004-2005, Dr. Tripps donated his time as a loaned executive to restructure and revitalize Athletes for a Better World, a non-profit agency devoted to returning character and civic responsibility to sport.

Tripps' speaking engagements have included the Inquiring Mind series of the National Endowment for the Humanities and ceremonies at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He is a frequent guest commentator on radio, a guest commentator in The History Channel's Top Speed, and currently working as Co-Executive Producer for a forthcoming television show about sport science and technology called SportsTechWorld.

Tripps has served as editor for ten textbooks in elite human performance, has written dozens of professional articles, and has delivered speeches for a wide range of national and international organizations.

Tripps obtained his Ph.D. in Sport Psychology from the University of Oregon and M.A. in Education from Stanford University. His undergraduate training was at the University of Southern California and San Francisco State University where he completed a B.A. in English and Social Studies.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Natalie Dorrell, Public Information (760) 384-6260