Page 2 - Trustee Russell Stokes

MSM Trustee Russell Stokes
Atlanta business leader and advocate for better health care
and education helps create scholarship fund for MSM
s a teenager, Russell
Stokes lifted weights,
Awore the number 29,
and sprinted hills by himself at
night in an effort to be more like
the famous Black running back
Eric Dickerson, nicknamed “Mr.
Fourth Quarter” for his ability to
tap into a late-game reservoir of
speed and stamina.
Stokes had the grit, skill, and
competitive spirit required for a
career in the National Football
League. But he was on the smaller
side, and when his much-larger
cousin was drafted, Stokes realized I could on a different playing field,”
it was unlikely he himself would
ever play in the pros.
Still, Stokes didn’t get discour-
aged. Instead, he took his drive
and desire and set out on another
career path, becoming the kind
of business leader who motivates
others to make a difference.
He is now a 21-year veteran at
GE, currently serving as the Presi-
dent and Chief Executive Officer of
GE Power Portfolio, and a member
of the Board of Trustees at More- TRUSTEE RUSSELL STOKES
house School of Medicine.
“I decided to accomplish the best he says.
To that end, Russell and his wife
have created the Lisa and Russell
Stokes Endowed Scholarship at
Morehouse School of Medicine, a
$250,000-fund that focuses on MD
students who are committed to ad-
dressing the healthcare challenges
illuminated and exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s important to invest in others,
to bring the best out of them,” he
says. “I’ve always been focused on
finding potential.”
When Stokes was a child, grow-
ing up in Shaker Heights, Oh., his
father — then an engineer with
General Motors Co. — would
drop puzzles in front of the boy,
who would then stay up for hours,
determined to find the solutions.
He loved creating complex dom-
ino designs, then toppling them.
Rube Goldberg machines were