Gary Barnes

Age 55

Associate Professor

  		I was a member of the 2006 8-person Corporate Challenge Team representing Team Donate Life and will race this year on a two-man team.
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Professional Background:
I am currently the Director of Testing Services and Associate Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. I am a Licensed Psychologist and an Ordained Minister. I also have a part-time private practice specializing in Marriage and Family Practice.

After graduating from seminary, I served as an assistant pastor for seven years and then earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University. While in New York, I was a research project coordinator at NYU Medical Center's Family Studies Clinic and later completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in clinical child psychology through Parkland Hospital (Dallas) and the Child Guidance Clinics.
Family and Personal Background:
I am living in Dallas, Texas. I've been married 28 years and have two sons, two daughters and a brand new daughter-in-law, ages 20-25. During the years of 1999 to 2007 we will celebrate 9 different high school, college and grad school graduations for our kids. For awhile there we had one third of the Big Twelve Conference covered for college tuition contributions. We are ALL so happy to be one year away from our last college graduation, HOORAYY!!!
Our family has been extremely blessed and we are very grateful. To whom much is given, much is required. We sense a keen responsibillity to be good stewards of all that has been entrusted to us. I hope that our family reflects back a gratitude that is felt by others.
Athletic Background:
I have always loved sports and especially the dimension of personal transformation associated with the participation in sports. Up through college I experienced a wide range of athletic activities and wilderness "Outward Bound" type programs. The summer before graduating from college, I took a solo cross country bike trip that changed my life. During that trip, I was in a head on collision with a car, and my life was graciously spared. Ever since that day, every stroke of the pedals that I take is a reminder of the gracious gift of life.
Past cycling accomplishments:
  • 2500 mile solo cross country unassisted
  • Texas Spenco 500 team race
  • USCF Texas State Masters Team Time Trial Championship - 1st (1990)
  • USAT National Championship Team Relay - 4th (1990)
  • Hotter than Hell 100 - 4:08 (2004)
Present cycling accomplishments for 2005:
  • 10,000 training miles for the year
  • 25 mile individual time trial - 1:00:10
  • 50 mile individual time trial - 2:13:11
  • 100 mile individual time trial - 4:50:05
Why are you involved in Team Donate Life?
Team Donate Life will provide a significant opportunity for me to give back to others, to stretch myself in service and personal growth, and to become a part of a Team well established in giving life to others. RAAM provides the arena where all of this can be worked out for a greater good with an increased public awareness and with a growing synergistic effect of all the participating contributors.
Two of my professional colleagues are recepients of organ donations. A spouse of another colleague is in need of a kidney and one of my graduate students is in need of a heart transplant. These stories could be retold in communities all across the country. In Racing Across America, Team Donate Life could make a dream come true for someone in a community anywhere across America.