Leah Falco
Leah Falco graduated from Queens College with a B.F.A. and continued to paint while working at a variety of jobs, finally deciding, with much encouragement from her loving husband, to pursue illustration. She has been doing editorial illustration for a little over two years, and finds it challenging and rewarding. Among her clients are The Baltimore Sun , Crain's Industry Focus magazine and The Wall St. Journal . She lives in New York City with her aforementioned husband and enigmatic son. Her illustration for this month's Last Stand (page 112) playfully tackles the serious issue of the influence of ill-behaved celebrities as role models for kids today, with a nod to late-night funnyman Jay Leno.
Chris Herrington
In addition to being a contributing editor for Memphi s , Chris Herrington is the music and film editor for The Memphis Flyer , where he also covers the Memphis Grizzlies. Chris has won multiple awards for arts criticism and sports writing from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Southeast regional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), most recently getting first place for criticism in the SPJ's 2006 Green Eyeshade Awards. His favorite trendy nightspot is his Midtown home, where he hangs out with his wife Joanna, his daughter Rosie, and his dog Moe, and watches too much television.
Regis Lawson
Born in 1977 in Poitiers, France, photographer Regis Lawson spent most of his childhood in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. In 1998, he moved to the United States to pursue his education and completed a B.A. with a minor in photography at the University of Memphis. Under the guidance of Nigerian artist Ephraim Urevbu, he combines his love of drawing, painting, and photography into his artwork. He shoots for several national publications, and has works in both public and private collections around the country. May marks the second issue of Memphis in which his work appears.
Greg Russell
Greg Russell has been editor of The University of Memphis magazine since November 2000. His work has appeared in Memphis, The Commercial Appeal , Running Times , Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , Engineering in Medicine and Biology, and other publications. He's an avid traveler, having journeyed to 31 countries, most recently the Dominican Republic to document a unique nursing school program that he writes about in this month's issue. He spent several years in wilderness areas of Alaska as a National Park Service ranger before returning to his hometown of Memphis in 1997. He has been a serious runner since 1989, having logged some 25,000 miles, and often comes up with ideas for stories he is working on while on the run. He is also writing a novel, which he admits has turned into a 10-year project.
