Susan joined Orr Associates, Inc. (OAI) in October 2006 bringing years of experience in nonprofit management, strategic planning, grant giving, partner cultivation and management, large and small scale event management and marketing/public relations.

Prior to OAI, Susan served as Managing Director, Community Outreach for Sallie Mae and as Senior Vice President of The Sallie Mae Fund. In her roles, Susan established The Sallie Mae Fund by developing its mission and creating programs that address access issues including nationwide public education campaigns, scholarship programs and educational materials. She was responsible for all operational aspects, including: board development and oversight, financial management, investment strategy, legal compliance and grant giving.

Prior to joining Sallie Mae, Susan was acting Chief Operating Officer for PowerUP: Bridging the Digital Divide, an initiative of The Steve Case Foundation. She assisted the CEO in getting the start-up technology nonprofit off the ground. Her duties encompassed developing the organizational growth plan, communications strategy and implementation plan to roll out more than 300 “PowerUP” after-school technology labs.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Susan served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the 2000 Democratic National Convention assisting in managing fourteen departments responsible for various components of the August political convention.

From 1991 to 2000, she worked for three of the top ten communications firms in the world. While at Fleishman-Hillard, she directed communications and identified and executed initiatives for the AOL Foundation around pressing social issues where the online medium could be an instrumental vehicle in making a difference. She also served as acting Communications Director for AOL International and created the global media strategy and planned the media launch events for AOL Australia and AOL Japan.

She received a bachelor’s degree in Communications from California State University at Fullerton. A native of Southern California, Susan enjoys traveling, reading, rollerblading and cooking. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband Lucio and their two daughters.