Frances Russ

Frances Russ has spent three decades working in communications and marketing for the public sector, primarily with school districts throughout Ohio as well as for the state and the City of Columbus. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the rowing team for four years, Russ began her career with an internship at WEWSTV in Cleveland, followed by a stint at a radio station and then as a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Cleveland, where she wrote a column called Tattle Tales. She then moved into public relations, serving 15 years as the first communications professional at Mentor School District, where she built newsletters, websites, and supported school levy campaigns. After a one-year contract role rewriting customer communications at Progressive Insurance, Russ returned to school district work at Newark School for four years, developing a new website that earned an award from the National School Public Relations Association. She later served as Chief Communications Officer at the Ohio Department of Youth Services, working closely with the governor's office on internal communications across multiple sites. Russ then spent four years handling media relations and press releases for a large urban school district in Cincinnati during the COVID-19 pandemic before concluding her career in the Mayor's Office of the City of Columbus, from which she retired. She is currently developing a recipe management and organization app.