Susan has twenty years’ experience in child welfare and related social services. Prior to founding Family & Youth Initiative, she served for five years as Director of the Kidsave Weekend Miracles DC program, piloting a new approach to helping older children in foster care find adoptive families with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Susan previously worked as an independent consultant, assisting public and private social services agencies with projects in program design, development and contracting. She has worked for DC Child and Family Services Agency, last serving as Administrator for Resource Development, where her responsibilities included foster and adoptive parent recruitment and support, contract monitoring, foster home licensing, and new program development. She holds a Master of Public Management degree from the University of Maryland and a BA from Yale University.