Associate Professor Jessica Russ-Smith (she/her) is a sovereign Wiradyuri Wambuul woman, Associate Professor Social Work, Assistant Deputy Head of School Allied Health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Curriculum and Pedagogy Co-ordinator of Social Work and Chair of the Indigenous Research Ethics Advisory Panel at ACU. She is a two-time University Medallist and an elected non-executive Director for the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). Jess is a member of Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) Research Advisory Committee and the Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) First Nations Advisory Committee

Throughout her career, she has been committed to creating decolonising, critical learning and practice spaces for students, staff and practitioners which honour and are guided by First Nations sovereign knowledges. Jess’s research and teaching relates to Indigenous sovereignty, decolonising higher education and social work, critical disability justice, ethics and AI.

Jess graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work (Hons. Class 1, University Medal) from UNSW in 2016. In 2018, Jess graduated from Charles Sturt University in the Graduate Certificate Wiradyuri Culture, Language and Heritage. In 2023 she Graduated with her PhD, awarded unanimous pass and the HDR University Medal. Her doctoral research explores Indigenous embodiment of sovereignty based upon Wiradyuri cosmology and the sacred Wiradyuri relationship of grandmothers and granddaughters. Her thesis is entitled ‘Balayanhi Wiradyuri Garingundhi: We are sovereign my granddaughter. Embodying Wiradyuri women sovereignty through Wiradyuri knowing, being and doing.