Russek joined the Department of Physical Therapy in 1997 and was instrumental in developing a problem-based learning physical therapy program, helping students learn how to be effective as a team, and learning physical therapy content through engagement in patient case studies.

Russek teaches musculoskeletal physical therapy and research courses. As part of teaching in the first semester of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, Russek helps students make the adjustment to problem-based learning with the demands of a doctoral level health science curriculum.

She has written the chronic pain chapter in one of the most widely used physical therapy textbooks.

She is one of the leading researchers on hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) in the United States, publishing in the field’s premiere professional journals and speaking at national and international conferences.

Her current research includes the use of virtual reality to measure motor control and body awareness, and in an international collaboration evaluating the potential benefits of Pilates exercise for people with hEDS. The New York Physical Therapy Association Russek awarded her the Robert S. Salant Research Award for research on headaches.

She has fostered human subjects research at Clarkson through her 18 years on Clarkson’s Institutional Review Board for human subjects ethics, serving as the chair of the board for six years.

Her service to the community and the profession was recognized with the Dr. Marilyn Moffat Distinguished Service Award from the New York section of the American Physical Therapy Association.

Russek also has earned a fifth-degree black belt in aikido.