Lisa Russell-Mina served as Director of Major Gifts at Society for Science in Washington, D.C., from 2017 to 2024, helping donors support the Society's centennial celebration. She served as Senior Director of Development at the Association of American Colleges & Universities from 2011 to 2017. From 1995 to 2011, she worked at the Johns Hopkins Institutions in Development Research, Institutional Donor Relations, and Major Gifts.

Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Russell-Mina served as Assistant to the President for Special Projects at Princeton University. She also was Senior Lecturer at Towson University, where she taught Philosophy 101 for three years.

She has a B.A. in the History of Ideas from Williams College, and an M.A. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.