Jennifer Russell is a 1994 graduate of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She earned a Masters in Public Administration from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in 1998.

Jennifer began working with University of IL Extension, Calhoun-Jersey Unit in May 1999. As County Director, Jennifer managed several local, state and federal grants, and oversaw the direction of educational programming for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, 4-H Youth Development and Community and Economic Development. Starting in February 2012, Jennifer Russell became the Community and Economic Development Educator covering Calhoun, Greene, Morgan, Scott and Cass counties.

Jennifer is a member of IL-NACDEP, an Illinois chapter of the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals.

Jennifer Russell provides customer service training for businesses, agencies and school districts. This training helps develop customer service skills (dealing with conflict, attitude, appropriate body language and tone of voice) so that employees can positively impact customer satisfaction which leads to repeat business and increased profits.