Susan Phariss:  

It's been a strange and winding road, but I finally got here. After graduating from TU with a mechanical engineering degree, I worked for various consulting firms in Tulsa and Dallas for 15 years and earned my PE. Engineering naturally led to dog training, so I founded Oklahoma's first service dog school, TheraPetics Service Dogs of Oklahoma. I served as president of Assistance Dogs International, the worldwide coalition of guide, service, and hearing dog schools and chaired the international Standards Committee for six years. I married Paul Bello (Hale class of '73) in 1978 and shared 20 years of my life with him before he died of hepatitis C. His death incapacitated me, so I left the nonprofit and licked my wounds for a few years. Then I entered the world of entertainment. With my comedy dog act, I toured nationally teaching elementary school kids about positive reinforcement and good character traits. Living in a 40' luxury motor home was cool, but the grueling schedule my agent put me on was not, so I quit the tour in 2007. I married a brain-damaged juggler, Paul Phariss (Edison class of '72, gold-medalist juggler) in 2000 and we wrote a book together--Have a Ball Learning: How Juggling Helps Kids Overcome Their Learning Disabilities. You can buy a copy on Amazon.com. Since then I've becom...Expand for more