Catherine Mary Russell (born March 4, 1961) is an American attorney and political adviser who is the executive director of UNICEF as of 2022[update].

Russell graduated from Boston College, magna cum laude, with a degree in philosophy, and received her Juris Doctor from George Washington University.

In that role, Russell worked on the successful passage of the Violence Against Women Act and the Supreme Court nominations of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

In that role, Russell managed the second lady's staff and worked on her initiatives to increase access to community college education and to support military families, through the Joining Forces program.

It enlisted the State Department, USAID, Peace Corps, and Millennium Challenge Corporation to pursue the same goal: "to ensure adolescent girls are educated, healthy, socially and economically empowered, and free from violence and discrimination.

Under Russell's leadership, the Office of Global Women's Issues worked with Secretary Kerry to secure $7 million for adolescent girls' empowerment programming in Afghanistan in March 2016.

Since 1991, Russell has been married to Thomas E. Donilon, who was the National Security Advisor under President Obama, and is chairman of BlackRock Investment [1].