Dr. Raedeen Russell hails from the beautiful island of Jamaica. She migrated to the United States in August 2006 upon receipt of a Presidential Scholarship to attend Saint Augustine’s University (SAU). As a Biology major, she was consistently named in the catalog of Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities, and alongside SAU’s Presidential and Dean’s List Scholars. During her tenure at SAU, she was inducted in the Beta Kappa Chi and the Alpha Kappa Mu National Honors Societies. She was involved in several on campus organizations and was selected as a student representative in the Student Leaders Organization, the Campus Judicial Board, and the Student Government Organization as the Chief of Staff. She graduated with summa cum laude honors as the 2010 graduating class valedictorian. She also received additional honors as top student in the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and top student in the Department of Biology.

After graduating from SAU, Dr. Russell attended Georgia State University where she pursued a Master of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. She received both Graduate Teaching and Research Fellowships. It was at GSU she discovered her passion for global health and global travel during a study abroad program in Taiwan. With her master’s degree in hand, Dr. Russell was contracted as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Her team produced virus-like particles (VLPs) from Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) for the testing of samples received from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Her work at the CDC was intriguing because it was at the intersection of public health, medicine, and bench research. Although she enjoyed her work and the impact it would have on informing CDC’s policies regarding HPV infection control, she decided to hone her skills as a biomedical scientist. In August 2013, she made the difficult decision to resign her work and matriculate at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to pursue a doctoral degree.

Dr. Russell’s dissertation research involved a novel platform in which infection-derived exosomes were used to further understand chlamydial disease, and to identify potential biomarkers for vaccine development. She was blessed with the opportunity to present her research at national and international conferences. She also received peer-reviewed publications, and numerous travel awards and grants including the American Society for Microbiology Robert Watkins Fellowship and the German Academic Student Exchange (DAAD) scholarship. Her interest in the host’s immune response to infection led her to conduct her postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University. She did a one-year fellowship studying the host response to Streptococcus pyogenes infection that causes strep throat. With her goal to bring her research from the bench side to the bedside, she accepted the call to attend medical school.
Dr. Russell is currently a 3rd year medical student at her home institution at Morehouse School of Medicine. She desires to impact the world as a physician-instructor-scientist, training the next generation of young minds, while conducting groundbreaking research to improve the health of her patients.

In addition to her academic pursuit, Dr. Russell has high hopes of climbing the ranks as a soldier. She was recently commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve and is humbled to serve this great country that has given her the opportunity to soar.

Dr. Russell believes in work-life balance. She likes to dance, watch films from the early 1900s, and attend outdoor summer concerts. She also enjoys traveling internationally. She thinks of herself as a cultural anthropologist and has traveled to more than 40 cities across 18 countries.

Her mission in life is to live without regret.

Her motto is, with Christ all things are possible and with a smile she can conquer any storm.

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