Russell Lissau is a veteran reporter covering politics, education and other areas of interest for the Daily Herald. His beat includes: Lake County government; the Lake County Forest Preserve District; the villages of Mundelein, Lincolnshire and Island Lake; Mundelein High School 120; Stevenson High School District 125; Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128; Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103; Fremont School District 79; the Fremont Public Library District; the Cook Memorial Public Library District; and the Vernon Area Public Library District.

A New York native who spent much of his childhood in South Florida, Lissau has been writing for publication since middle school and first was paid to put words on a page as a staff writer and editor for the Daily Northwestern at Northwestern University.

Before joining the Daily Herald in 1993, he worked as a freelance writer for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and as an intern and freelance writer for the Miami Herald. An early career high came in 1992 when he contributed to the Miami Herald's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Andrew.

Highlights at the Daily Herald have included: an investigation that uncovered Open Meetings Act violations by the Mundelein High School board; a series of articles about a civilian effort to persuade the government to recover the body of a Navy airman who died during a Cold War mission in Antarctica; and, most recently, an investigation that revealed a political candidate lost a condominium to foreclosure but didn't make the setback public during his primary campaign.

Lissau's byline also has appeared in a variety of popular magazines, including Chicago magazine, North Shore magazine, Working Woman, The Advocate, Curve, Cinefantastique, Chicago Parent and Wizard: The Comics Magazine. In addition, he has written comic books for DC Comics, Ape Entertainment and other publishers since launching a second career in 2005. His credits include "The Batman Strikes," "Shrek," "The 29" and the "Reading With Pictures" anthology.