Russ grew up in the Tidewater region of Virginia and attended Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk and then George Mason University in Fairfax, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1989.

He worked as Special Projects Director for the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association, organizing competitions for the annual convention and trade show, coordinated the membership awards recognition program, solicited contributions for silent auctions, assisted the membership department with member recruitment and retention, arranged informational forums across the country, planned meetings for the Board of Directors, staff, and volunteer leaders, and provided the organization’s president with weekly project updates and briefings.

For nine years, he served as the Director of Marketing and Meetings Management for Courier Magazine, a national publication dedicated to the messenger-courier industry. While there, he organized all aspects of annual conferences, promoted the magazine and conferences to potential advertisers and vendors, managed conference and advertising budgets, developed website, direct mail, and e-mail solicitations, coordinated the design, advertising, editorial content and printing of the quarterly magazine.

Subsequently, Russ worked as Lead Coordinating Editor for LexisNexis and as Copy Editor for SNL Financial, both in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also served as a U.S. Patent Classifier for Centuria Corp. in Harrisburg, Virginia, where he reviewed and classified environmental, biotechnical, and organic chemistry patent applications.

Russ was then hired as the Program Coordinator for SAFE Haven of Racine, a runaway and homeless youth shelter in Southeast Wisconsin where, among many responsibilities, he planned, developed, implemented and evaluated shelter services in compliance with government standards and funding source requirements.

Relocating then to Florida, Russ worked for four years as an Accreditation Manager for the American Culinary Federation’s Education Foundation. There — and while regularly traveling across the United States and South America, he reviewed postsecondary program curricula against established standards and competencies, enforced accreditation standards at ACFEF-accredited programs, wrote reports and newsletters, lead postsecondary accreditation site visits, recruited professional chefs to volunteer as evaluators on accreditation site visits, trained site visit evaluators, coordinated travel arrangements, communicated with postsecondary program coordinators, interviewed students and faculty members, and guided programs through the accreditation process.

Returning to Wisconsin, Russ was hired as Marketing Director for Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, where he designed and produced brochures, posters, ads, conference materials, postcards and other materials, developed and maintained contact with youth symphony orchestras, festivals and other youth music events and organizations, created press releases and radio ads, prepared press kits for media contacts, arrange on-site visits and special events for media outlets, supervised distribution of marketing materials with help of volunteers, interns and private contractors, communicated with advertisers, maintained the website and Facebook/Twitter outlets, and photographed concerts and special events.

From there, Russ was hired as Marketing Director for Midsummer’s Music, where, after a year, he was promoted to Executive Director of the organization.

In 2018, Russ and his husband embarked on a lifelong dream of living in Spain and Portugal, where he continues to live today, while still serving remotely and leading Marketing/Media for Midsummer’s Music.