Jonathan B. Waugh, Ph.D has been associate professor and director of clinical education for the Respiratory Therapy Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham since 1999.  His research interests include mechanical ventilation, respiratory device testing, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and smoking cessation techniques.  His teaching areas include mechanical ventilation, cardiopulmonary critical care, pulmonary function testing, research methodology, and respiratory therapeutics.  He has been in the respiratory therapy profession for more than 20 years.

Vijay Deshpande, MS, RRT, FAARC is an author of three books and two chapters in textbooks on Respiratory Therapy. Vijay has been a speaker at state societies in Respiratory Care. In the past 30 years Vijay has given over 250 presentations on topics in Respiratory Care with emphasis on Mechanical ventilation and Ventilator Graphics. Vijay has been a keynote speaker at eight state society conferences. Moreover, he has been an invited speaker at pulmonary conferences. He has been an avid supporter of the profession of Respiratory Care and is very active with the Georgia Society and the AARC.

Vijay has received many accolades for his service to the profession:

The AARC inducted Vijay Deshpande as a "Fellow of American Association for Respiratory Care (FAARC)" in 2000. He was also awarded "Educator of the Year" in 2002 by the AARC. The Lambda Beta Society, the National Honor Society for the profession of Respiratory Care, honored him with "National Honorary Member" in 2003. The Georgia Society for Respiratory care felicited Vijay with the "President's Award" in 1993 and 1998.

Melissa Brown, RT, RRT-NPS has been a practicing respiratory therapist since 1990 and has worked in all areas of respiratory care including adult, pediatric, and neonatal intensive care. In 2002, the AARC awarded Melissa with the AARC Neonatal/Pediatric Practitioner of the Year Award. She has been teaching since 1997 as a hospital based educator, and since 2002 for the Respiratory Therapy Program at Grossmont Community College. Her published research includes heliox therapy, respiratory device evaluations, surfactant therapy, mechanical ventilation, nasal continuous positive airway pressure, acute asthma management, neonatal assessment and resuscitation, and pulmonary mechanics monitoring. Melissa is a frequent lecturer at local, state, national, and international meetings. She is currently the Clinical Research Facilitator for the Chest Medicine and Critical Care Medical Group at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego.

Robert Harwood, M.S.A., RRT-NPS is currently clinical assistant professor in the department of respiratoary therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Ga. His areas of interest and research include adult and neonatal aerosol delivery with mechanical ventilation, sleep medicine and airway clearance techniques. His teaching areas include, adult mechanical ventilation, neonatal respiratory care and student development for the entry-level and advanced NBRC examinations.