Rusch studied Musicology at the University of Amsterdam and baritone saxophone with Ferdinand Povel and Jasper Blom at the CvA Jazz Department. She obtained her doctorate in 2016 with a cultural-historical research project on jazz and improvised music in the Netherlands. As a researcher she participated in large-scale European research projects on music and identity (Rhythm Changes), and music festivals and cultural heritage (CHIME). For this project she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Birmingham City University (UK) for two years.

Rusch is regularly invited to lecture on topics related to music, such as cultural heritage, diversity in the arts, jazz and improvised music in the Netherlands and the role of women in jazz. Rusch also teaches at Utrecht University and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. She is a board member of the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw and the Netherlands Jazz Archive, and a member of the advisory editorial board of Forum+ en Jazzforschung/ Research Research. Additionally, she works a a programmer at the classical music festival Wonderfeel.