Who is Dr. Albert E. Russell?

What do I do?  I inspire people.  Why do I do it? I do it because God has called me to do it.  When do I do it?  Every single day!  Who am I?  I'm God's child.  I was born in 1975 at Andrews AFB in Maryland.  The son of Arthur Ray Russell and Bernice C. Russell, I was raised in Mobile, AL.  My early years were spent being shy and reclusive.  My mother made sure that we were on every program and I recall with fondness speaking at different events and never being nervous.  Now, I talk for a living.  I am the sixth of seven children.  My father passed away when I was three years old.  I never used the lack of a father in the home as a crutch.  We dealt with life as it came.  My mother held it down along with my older brothers and sisters.  I attended Palmer Pillans MIddle School and Williamson High School.

I left Mobile in 1993 to attend Alabama State University.  I will never forget the day of my high-school graduation, my mother made me drive back to Huntsville, AL with my sister, who was in town to watch me walk across the stage.  I was angry at the time because I did not get to attend graduation parties and hang out with my friends.  In retrospect, it was the best decision that was ever made.  While en route to Huntsville, my sister made a stop in Montgomery and introduced me to the VP for Academic Affairs at Alabama State University.  He was skeptical.  Here was this skinny kid with gold chains, an earring, a pair of Jordan's on and an oversized Florida State tee-shirt standing in his office with my sister who was well dressed and very professional looking.  He said to me, point blank, "I don't know about you."  That taught me a valuable lesson.  I graduated 3rd in my class, I was a very good student yet because of my appearance, I was immediately judged.  Rather than seek to conform and fit into his box, I made him a deal.  I promised that I'd get a 4.0 both semesters of my freshman year.  He shook my hand and gave me a Dean's Scholarship and the rest was history.  Not only did I bring my report card to him every semester, I had a 4.0 for the first three years of my college career.  It was at Alabama State that I began to find my voice and it was also the place where I met my future wife.

I left Alabama State with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry and pursued my Ph.D.  I studied organic chemistry and I loved every minute of it.  The University of North Carolina was a place of spiritual formation as well as intellectual growth.  It was one of the most rigorous times in my life but also one of the most beautiful.  After five years there, I graduated in 2003.  I then went to the University of Maryland to do a postdoc and try to figure out what I'd do with my life.

During graduate school, I married my college sweetheart, Dr. Tomeka Danielle Russell.  She and I were on the grind together.  Neither of us had two nickels to rub together but we had a love that was incomparable to anything that I'd ever seen.  Danielle and I had two wonderful children together.  Donovan and Genesis are both pieces of us but they have their own identities.  Donovan is reserved and cool.  Genesis is bold and outgoing.  They reflect the best of both Danielle and I.  Danielle passed away on April 13th 2017 from breast cancer.  She still lives on through our children and through her scholarship and our foundation, the 413 Foundation. After five years, and not believing that I’d ever marry again, I met an amazing, caring, and understanding woman in Les’Lee. We met by accident, but falling in love with her was not an accident. She was exactly what I needed at the time, and I am glad that we decided to get married and merge our families. I now have two bonus children, Caleb and Sydney, and we are working through the kinks of blending families with children at totally different stages of life! All in all, God is still good. Les’Lee and I have been married since July 2021.

I am currently the Pastor of Grace Community Church in Millbrook, AL.  I have been there for four years.  We're a multiethnic congregation that is simply trying to do this thing the right way.  I'm also the Chemistry Department Chair at Tuskegee University.  Tuskegee is the crucible for a lot of the ministry and mentorship that I do on a daily basis.  My students see me as their professor as well as their Pastor.  In my 12 years at Tuskegee, I've met and mentored hundreds of students.  I love that aspect of my career.  I love to put a little wind under the wings of those in my sphere of influence.