Heather Russell is a rural general practitioner and advanced trainee in public health medicine. Heather works as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Rural Health based in Orange. She is an early career academic with a particular interest in primary care and public health.

Heather's research and teaching focuses on improving learners' understanding of the social determinants of health to address health inequities. She has led the development and implementation of The Australian Rural Health Game, an educational board game for health professional students which explores the SDoH in a novel and engaging way. Heather has also developed and evaluated a teaching module equipping learners to build comprehensive social histories in rural contexts to strengthen patient-practitioner relationships and improve health outcomes for rural populations.

Heather is currently undertaking doctoral studies on virtual wound care in Australian residential aged settings under the supervision of Associate Professor Georgina Luscombe, Professor Michelle Barakat-Johnson and Professor Meredith Makeham.