Stephen F. Crouse
Dr. Crouse currently serves as Professor of Kinesiology, and Director of the Applied Exercise Science Laboratory at Texas A&M University. Dr. Crouse’s primary research focus is exercise and lipid metabolism as related to cardiovascular disease risk reduction. His research interests also include sports physiology and cardiovascular exercise physiology.
Biographical Information
Dr. Crouse received his B.S. in Biology from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. His experience includes four years of teaching and coaching in the public schools of Iowa and Colorado before completing his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He completed post-doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse before assuming a faculty position at Texas A&M University in 1984.
Dr. Crouse’s credentials include American College of Sports Medicine certification as an Exercise Program Director. He currently serves as Professor of Kinesiology in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, and is a Joint Professor of Internal Medicine in the College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center. He also serves as the Director of the Applied Exercise Science Laboratory and of the FitLife Exercise Program.
Dr. Crouse’s primary research focus is exercise and lipid metabolism as related to cardiovascular disease risk reduction. His research interests also include exercise as therapy for cystic fibrosis, sports physiology, and cardiovascular exercise physiology. He has published numerous peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters, as well as a laboratory instructional manual in exercise physiology. Dr. Crouse and his wife, Jana, reside in College Station, Texas, and are the proud parents of three married daughters and six grandchildren. He also serves as a Deacon and Adult Bible Study teacher at Central Baptist Church in College Station.
More information about Dr. Crouse’s professional activities can be found at http://hlknweb.tamu.edu, and http://huffines.tamu.edu.
And you can view more personal information about his family at http://fromthecrousehouse.blogspot.com.
Academic Vitae
EDUCATION
The United States Air Force Academy, Resigned, 1970
B.S.E. Biology, Drake University, 1975
Ph.D. Exercise Physiology, The University of New Mexico, 1984
CERTIFICATION
Preventive/Rehabilitative Program Director, The American College of Sports Medicine, Certification Number 177
Basic Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, American Heart Association
EXPERIENCE
1998- Present Professor, Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Member, Intercollegiate Faculty of Nutrition, Texas A&M University
2005- Present Joint Professor of Internal Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center
1986- Present Director, Applied Exercise Science Laboratory, Texas A&M University
Director, FitLife Exercise Program, Texas A&M University
2008- Present Director, Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, Texas A&M University
2003- 2008 Associate Department Head for Kinesiology, Texas A&M University
Interim Director, Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, Texas A&M University
1984- 2003 Chair, Applied Exercise Physiology Undergraduate Program, Texas A&M University
2002- 2003 Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, College of Education, Texas A&M University
2001- 2002 Associate Department Head, Health and Kinesiology Graduate Programs, Texas A&M University
1995- 2002 Chair, Health & Kinesiology Graduate Programs, Texas A&M University
1990- 1997 Associate Professor, Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University
1984-1989 Assistant Professor, Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University
1983-1984 Post-Doctoral Fellow, The LaCrosse Exercise Program, The University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse and Gundersen Clinic, Ltd., LaCrosse, Wisconsin
1983 Instructor, Health and Physical Education, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1979-1982 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Health and Physical Education, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1977-1979 Biology and Physical Education Teacher, East Grand Community Schools, Granby, Colorado
1975-1977 Biology and Physical Education Teacher, Reinbeck Community Schools, Reinbeck, Iowa
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
American College of Sports Medicine, Fellow
American Heart Association, Board of Directors, Brazos County Division, 1990-1992
American Physiological Society, Member
Association for Worksite Health Promotion (formally AFB), 1988-2000
Fellow, 1998-2000
Education Committee, Member, September 1990-1991
Research Track/Student Chair, Conference Committee, 1990-1991
Vice-President for Education, 1991-1992
Research Committee, 1992-1999
Nomination Committee, 1993
Research Track Chair, Conference Committee, 1992-1993
Research Subcommittee, Education Committee, 1994-1999
Region VI Association for Worksite Health Promotion, Education Director, Board of Directors, 1988-1991
Texas Chapter American College of Sports Medicine, Continuing Education Director, 1989-1991
My Personal Story
An Iowa Farm Boy
Growing up on the farm in rural Iowa the first-born of four boys in a loving family, attending Church was as natural as playing baseball with my father and brothers in my spare time. In fact, church and sports of all kinds dominated my early life. I can hardly remember a time when I was not in Church and Sunday School on Sundays, nor a time I did not have some type of ball in my hand when I was not in school or working on the farm.
Not to give the wrong impression of my early spirituality, I confess that as a young boy playing sports, not Church attendance, was my first love. I dutifully performed my parts in the Christmas programs to the delight of my father and mother, was confirmed in our small Lutheran Church, and went through the motions of being a Christian. I tried to be attentive when my mother read the nightly devotional we so often had. And I even tried to be good — sometimes.
Although I always had a “God consciousness,” as I grew from childhood to youth the relevance of the Christian faith to my life seemed remote. I began to experience more and more success in my sports endeavors, and it became my passion to “play the game,” whatever game was in season. God became to me a distant voice, indeed one crying in the wilderness.
Regardless of my disinterest in the things of God, in looking back it is clear to me that the Lord had a way of guiding my path and periodically reminding me of His inexpressible love. One way He profoundly grabbed my attention was through a simple statement made by one of my Sunday school teachers when I was in the sixth grade.
Miss Twyla Seibert was a woman short of stature but tall in faith. She had the calling to teach my rambunctious sixth-grade class, trying faithfully from week-to-week to harness our energy for a few minutes of Bible study each Sunday morning. One morning she asked us a very simple question, “Do you know you will be in Heaven when you die?” Now this really got the class talking. After a good deal of discussion and sharing all the wisdom of sixth graders, we finally decided that we could not know; indeed, no one could know until they died, could they? We concluded that if we were good enough, God would let us into heaven. Of course, we could not define “good enough.”
I Will Be In Heaven
After the discussion died down, Miss Seibert simply said something I will never forget, a statement of faith that was astounding to me at the time: “I know I will be in Heaven when I die,” she said.
“Impossible,” the class replied.
She said it again more emphatically. In simple terms she went on to explain the Gospel, telling us that on the basis of Jesus Christ’s finished work of salvation she was redeemed from the penalty of her sin. She was certain that she would be in heaven with Him when she died. It wasn’t her works she depended on, but His.
Now I don’t recall much of the discussion that followed, and I did not know by experience the Truth of her words, but my heart was touched by the Spirit of God that day. A seed was planted that would eventually take hold and grow.
As I entered high school, my passion for sports only intensified. Coincident with my arrival at high school, the Lord brought a new, young coach to serve in my school. In my small, rural school coaches often served in many sports, and Mr. Keith Allen was no exception. Because he was an assistant football coach, head basketball, and head men’s track coach, all sports in which I participated, I spent many hours under his coaching eye. But in a short time, he became more than just a coach.
It was evident he had a concern for young adults that went far beyond the coach-player relationship. He was a Godly man who became a trusted counselor to me and many others in my school. No student was beyond Mr. Allen’s care and concern. Along with training my body through sports, Mr. Allen trained me in lessons of life. He showed me by example what it meant to live a Godly life. His was a Christian faith that consistently showed up in the way he lived each day, and it made a deep impression on my young life. So great was his living testimony that I count Mr. Allen as one of the most influential men in my life.
As my sophomore year drew to a close, my dad helped me decide it was time to join the work world outside the family farm. Now a 16-year-old young man in rural Iowa with only farm skills to offer was not in high demand, so finding a job was difficult. I was happy when Bill Wade, one of the local businessmen – just coincidently one of Coach Allen’s friends, and a great Christian man in his own right – offered me a job at a farm implement store. He only had one condition that went with the job offer; I must agree to attend a Fellowship of Christian Athletes national conference with him and his family that summer.
I was sure I needed a job, but not so sure about the camp idea. He sold me on it by telling me that it was a special kind of sports camp, and there would be professional athletes attending as speakers. So that was how I came to be seated front and center in the meeting room of the camp lodge in Green Lakes, Wisconsin in June 1968. Bill Krischer, a former Dallas Texan football player – yes, there were the “Texans” in Dallas before there were “Cowboys” – spoke that night about the Love of God. The passage of scripture was John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
No Regrets
As part of my church upbringing I had memorized this verse years before. Before that night, I knew the words well in my mind, but that night the Truth of them burned into my heart. I knew they were meant for me, were written for me, spoken to me, personally. And right then and there I truly believed them. For the first time in my life, I put my faith in the Truth of them. That night Jesus Christ – the one who loved me even when I was a sinner and a rebel against him, the one who had died in my place and was raised from the dead, who lives eternally, the living Lord of Creation and Salvation – touched my life in a way I had never known before. My life was forever changed.
I cannot express even now so many years later the joy that flooded my soul at the moment I was overtaken by His Grace and truly believed. It was indeed a most holy time in my life. And it was the beginning of the great adventure of following my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Through all the years that have followed, I have never regretted giving my life to Christ, accepting His love and grace. Though I have been through some dark and rebellious times, He has proven ever faithful. In Him I have meaning and purpose for life, and I continue to learn to be content with what He gives, because I can trust that what He gives is best.
