Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Susan has lived in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories for the past five years. Based in Yellowknife, Susan is a professional geologist and geophysicist registered with NAPEG—the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists.
Educated in geology, biology, geophysics, and journalism, Susan was elected as a member of the Society of Women Geographers in 2024. She is an inductee of the Women Divers Hall of Fame, a Fellow International of The Explorers Club, and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS). In 2021, The Explorers Club included Susan in its inaugural TEC Class of 50, Fifty People Changing the World Who You Should Know About. In 2015, the RCGS named Susan one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trailblazers. A year later, the RCGS named her one of Canada’s 25 greatest female explorers.
Susan’s career in petroleum, mining, and environmental geoscience has taken her from Antarctica to the Arctic, across Canada and the USA, and to Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her thirty-plus-year career has spanned the private and public sectors and has included working as a vice president of several publicly traded and privately held energy companies.