Jennifer Russell
Founder, CEO & Executive Director

Prior to my work here at ILA, I worked for a law firm as a legal secretary for several years and a police, fire and EMS dispatcher before that. I have been a stay at home mom for last 15 years.

Seven years ago, my daughter became extremely ill when she was in first grade. She came home from school one day and I heard the bus, but she did not come in. I went outside and found her laying in the driveway. She was too fatigued to make it into the house. We were in and out of local hospitals. Her white blood counts were extremely low, and they told us they thought she had Leukemia. They eventually ruled that out, but she continued a fever for over a month and her lymph nodes would never go down. They kept telling us it was probably just a virus and it would just work itself out.  They later removed her tonsil & adenoids thinking it was holding in infection even though the blood tests would never show anything. 

After three-years of struggling to find out what was attacking her little body, she was finally diagnosed with late-Stage Lyme disease.

Through this journey we have come to realize that many people from our area are also struggling. We wanted to help support people suffering and their families, bring awareness & education to our area. We also wanted to make change in policy and our journey began. My daughter and I started a support group in Moline, IL which later turned into the Illinois Lyme Association.