 She participated in a Marxist study group which included the likes of Rewi Alley, Lily Haass, Talitha Gerlach and Cora Deng.Russell departed China in 1943, and began working for the YWCA in Passaic, New Jersey the following year.She was appointed executive director of the Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy in 1946, which she held for 6 years.