Susan Russell

An accomplished singer/actor, Susan Russell enjoyed a twenty-five-year career in opera and musical theatre, retiring from performance after five years in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and in San Francisco. Changing careers at forty-five years of age, Russell received her MA/PhD in Theatre Studies from Florida State University in 2007 and is a Professor Emeritus from The Pennsylvania State University, where for seventeen years, she taught literature and criticism, playwriting, and musical theatre history. In addition to her classroom duties, Dr. Russell created landmark DEI curriculum and partnered with local school systems to use storytelling as a tool to help young people talk about contemporary cultural issues. Susan Russell lives in Greensboro, NC with her wife, Elizabeth Nackley, and she still cannot seem to grow a proper heirloom tomato.