Mr. George Russell, Senior Advisor, The District Management Council

George Russell is the CEO/President of George Russell & Associates, an independent education and management consulting firm located in Eugene, Oregon.  Mr. Russell recently retired as the Superintendent/CEO of the Eugene Public Schools in Eugene, Oregon, where he served as superintendent for 12 years. Before becoming superintendent in 1998, he served as the executive director of human resources for the Eugene school district. Mr. Russell previously served in senior executive leadership roles with school districts in San Diego, Seattle, and Oklahoma City. He also worked for County government as director of human resource and management services, county treasurer, and county clerk

Mr. Russell's educational background includes an undergraduate degree in Social Psychology from Howard University in Washington, DC; Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from Golden Gate University in San Francisco; and, additional graduate work in education policy and administration from the University of Oregon.  He completed the Superintendent Leadership Program (SLP) in 2005 and the Executive Educator Leadership Program (ExEL) in 2008, both at Harvard University. He received an honorary Doctor of Humanities (D.Hum.) from Northwest Christian University in 2009.

From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Russell participated in the Danforth Foundation’s Forum for the American School Superintendent. He was a Wallace Foundation LEAD District superintendent from 2003-2008. He served on the Diversity Strategic Plan Steering Committee at the University of Oregon, and is on the advisory board for the Center for Leadership and Ethics at Northwest Christian University.  He also served as a regional officer and member of the board of directors for the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN).  Mr. Russell served as a mentor superintendent for the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Urban Superintendents Program (USP) and served on the advisory board for that program until 2011. He is currently serving as a mentor superintendent working with new superintendents through the Oregon Collaborative Administrator Mentoring Project (OCAMP) initiative.

Mr. Russell serves on a number of community boards, including United Way, NAACP, ShelterCare, Relief Nursery, Success by Six Leadership Team, Junior Achievement of Western Oregon and Chamber of Commerce, among others. He was appointed by the governor and served on the Oregon Quality Education Commission (QEC) and the Public Employees Retirement Service (PERS) Board. He has been involved in many professional organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) where he served on the National Governing Board for six years; National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) serving on the Superintendents Council; Confederation of Oregon School Administrators (COSA); and, Oregon Association of School Executives (OASE), for which he served as president in 2006-07. He helped create the National Superintendents Roundtable in 2005 and he co-chaired the executive board in 2010. He has received numerous community and professional awards, and was recognized as Oregon Superintendent of the Year for 2005.