Lisa (Yu) Russo is a Refugee Officer on the Policy Team in the International and Refugee Affairs Division at DHS/US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In this capacity, she serves as a program manager and policy-maker for migrant protection processing. Her career at USCIS has been dedicated to the asylum and refugee programs. Lisa is a 2002 Mitchell Scholar. She received an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen's University, Belfast. It was in Ireland she became interested in the situation facing refugees fleeing armed and ethnic conflict. For her, working with refugees was a way to understand the reality of conflict rather than the abstract theory. Lisa's thesis research brought her into contact with personnel at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Lisa was asked to write about a refugee protection mission and the work was published by the UNHCR. Her experience as a Mitchell Scholar guided her decision to attend law school and focus on immigration. Lisa obtained her undergraduate degree from Indiana University and, subsequent to her year in Ireland, her law degree from Notre Dame.