[2] Russell was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) for her research on prostate and bladder cancer in 2003.
[3] Russell was Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, based at the Translational Research Institute (Australia)[4] and adjunct professor, Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland.
[5] Russell trained in immunology at Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, where she obtained an MSc with Sir Macfarlane Burnet.
Subsequently, Russell completed a PhD with Sir Gustav Nossal, on studies of autoimmune diseases.
[9] Further studies of autoimmunity were performed by Russell's group at the Kolling Institute specifically SLE.