Susan (She, Her, Ella) is a descendant of farmers, costureras, housekeepers, barrios and ranchos. She is a borderland Chicana from San Diego, California who currently works as an ARTIST, EDUCATOR and ADMINISTRATOR in the Bay Area. Susan has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Masters of Arts in International Education from New York University. Throughout her educational career, Susan has explored the transformative process of creative practices for marginalized communities. Her academic inquiry culminated in a masters thesis about the pedagogical practice of art activism from women of color and immigrant women. In her career as an educator, artist, and administrator, Susan has worked on teams with transformative missions: diversifying story-telling in media, incubating small food businesses from women of color, expanding access to expressive creative practices and higher education resources to high school students, and providing nature-based education for students from marginalized families. Susan’s career has blossomed at the intersections of social equity and liberation, education, and creative practices.

Susan's personal art practice spans from digital video, and graphic design work to textiles and embroidery. She akins all of her artistic practices to collage: taking deep stock of the existing materials in their arriving form, then through a process of inquiry and listening, she begins weaving together threads and materials to expose stories revealed in the re-organization of space and form.