Dylan Russell

Dylan Russell serves as executive director of Lead for North Carolina, facilitating high-impact fellowships for recent graduates in local government state-wide. He also created the NC COVID-19 Student Response Corps in collaboration with the NC Office of Strategic Partnership, which successfully placed over 300 students in nonprofit and government organizations during the pandemic. He also teaches a core class for the UNC MPA program and within UNC's experiential education program for undergraduate students.
 
Before serving as executive director, Russell co-founded Lead for America, worked as a development officer at the School of Government, a management consultant at the NC Department of Health and Human Services, a policy analyst at the NC Department of Public Instruction, a fifth-grade public school teacher, a White House intern in the Office of Presidential Personnel, and a member of the Board of Trustees at Appalachian State University.
 
Russell served as the Graduate Student Body President at UNC and Appalachian State. He was awarded the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award from the UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor and the Plemmons Leadership Medallion by the Appalachian State University Board of Trustees. 
 
He earned his bachelor's degree from Appalachian State University, MPA from UNC-Chapel Hill, and is pursuing his Ph.D. in public administration at NC State University. Dylan is a public management scholar specializing in workforce and leadership development.