Rick Wallace’s Bio

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Born in the late 60’s to a fifteen-year-old mother and an absent father, Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D. was taken in at the age of nine months by his great-grandparents (hereafter referred to as his grandparents), and they legally adopted him when he was two.

He was extremely precocious as a child, and his grandmother would add, quite loquacious.  His grandmother took advantage of his inherent ability to learn and his inexorable desire to talk.  She sat him down at the age of two, switch in hand, and began to teach him the story of the creation as revealed in Geneses, chapters 1-3.  Once he had it committed it to memory, she taught him to recite it with passion.  She then took him from church to church, put a microphone in his hand and made him recite it before the congregation.

Dr. Wallace’s grandmother believed it was her God-ordained responsibility to invest in him in the manner that she did. Although his journey through academia and experiential observation have given him much to anatomize about the Christian faith, it was that background that provided the foundation of discipline that has underwritten his successes.

Dr. Wallace says that his grandfather was the one who taught him how to be a man.  Born in 1909, his grandfather had to stop schooling in the second grade to help his parents who sharecropped.  Because of this, he stressed education and achievement.  Though he passed away at the age of 83 in 1992, he is still very much a part of Dr. Wallace.  His grandmother passed recently, in March 2010 at the age of 92.

Dr. Wallace is a proud father of 13, ranging in age from three years to 32-years-old. He happily shares that he considers each one a blessing from God.  You will be introduced to each one individually through his writings, videos, and speeches.  His children are a constant reminder of his responsibility and purpose. He does not claim to be a perfect father, but he strives each day to learn and improve.

Thanks to his grandparents, he had a wonderful childhood, despite never meeting his father and an absent mother. During this time, he was given an immense appreciation for scholarship and he carried the natural gift of athleticism.  Throughout his life, he has put both to use.

Here is what Dr. Wallace had to say about others who made an immense impact on his development:

“I feel it necessary to give honorable mention to four people who had an enormous impact on my life.  Ms. Geraldine François, my 4th-6th-grade teacher.  Ms. François was an accelerated learning teacher who saw something special in me and refused to accept anything less than my best. This included my handwriting.  She said no one would ever discern the depth of my intelligence if they were not able to decipher my handwriting.  To this day, my handwriting is identical to hers and most women find it humorously unbefitting a man.

Mr. Brewer was my seventh-grade history teacher.  He instilled in me the intrinsic value of self-discipline.  Mr. Brewer was a former college instructor who discovered that many college students, especially those of color, were unprepared to take on the transition to a less restricted learning environment.  He decided to resign his position and teach and prepare younger students at the seventh-grade level.  Thanks to Mr. Brewer, I found that regardless to ability, one who lacks self-discipline would be overcome by failure.  He insisted that obedience, punctuality, diligence and patience were all keys to success.

Ms. Williams-Leonard, my high school journalism instructor, took an interest in me.  She was married to one of my football coaches.  She knew that my biological father was not a part of my life and suggested that as a way of dealing with the situation, I should write an article on absentee fathers.  I wrote the article entitled The Invisible Father.  Ms. Leonard was instrumental in getting the article published in several publications, including one national publication (Teen Magazine). That article eventually inspired my first book, “The Invisible Father: Reversing the Curse of a Fatherless Generation.” written during my incarceration.

Lastly, Mrs. Dewberry, my eleventh grade English teacher. Ms. Dewberry had the reputation for being the toughest teacher at the school.  Students would literally cry when they received their schedules at the beginning of the year and found that they would have Ms. Dewberry for an entire year.  I took it as a challenge. Within the first week, Ms. Dewberry noticed something within me worth cultivating.  As Ms. François did, she pushed me.  I remember a specific conversation in which she said, “Mr. Wallace, you possess that something special, that intangible asset that will allow you to soar beyond the clouds; you are a young black man with limitless potential.  Don’t ever allow anyone to tell you that you can’t.  The words “you are not good enough” will never apply to you.  Whatever your mind conceives, you will achieve.” I took that to heart.  I have been successful in a number of areas and based on the intent of my divine purpose, I have only scratched the surface.”

Dr. Wallace has authored and published 24 books, including his latest work Academic Apartheid, Critical Mass: The Phenomenon of Next-Level Living, Born in Captivity: Psychopathology as a Legacy of Slavery,” The Undoing of the African American Mind, and “The Mis-education of Black Youth in America.” He has written and published thousands of scholarly and prose articles and papers, with the overwhelming majority of his work surrounding the enigmatic issues plaguing blacks on every level. Papers that he has published include: “Special Education as the Mechanism for the Mis-education of African Youth,” “Racial Trauma & African Americans,” “Epigenetics in Psychology: The Genetic Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in African Americans,” and “Collective Cognitive-Bias Reality Syndrome” — to name a few.

Dr. Wallace is also a powerful and electrifying public speaker, who speaks to numerous types and sizes of audiences, on a number of different subjects. He also functions as a personal life enhancement advisor and counselor.

As the Founder and CEO of The Visionetics Institute, Dr. Wallace uses a wide range of disciplines, including psycho-cybernetics, neuro-linguistic programming, psychology, neuro-associative conditioning, embodied cognitive conditioning, and transformational vocabulary to help people raise the level of their performance in every area of their lives, including finance, marriage, business, parenting and more.