Susan

After earning a BS in home economics at Michigan State University, Susan accepted employment there starting a 40+ year MSU career in positions including Extension educator, administrator and specialist and Director of the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems, a precursor of MSU’s Center for Regional Food Systems. While working at MSU, she earned a MA in adult and continuing education and a PhD in extension education, focused on agricultural systems. She served on and co-chaired the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education technical committee; was a co-founder of Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS) and the Michigan Farmers Market Association (MIFMA), worked with students to develop the Michigan Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (MSAN), contributed to the 2010 National Academies Press book Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21^st Century; and received MSU’s Distinguished Academic Staff Award. She wrote proposals resulting in grants that were funded by USDA Risk Management Agency, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Project for Public Spaces among others.  Her interests in small to mid-scale farming, business planning and management, food and agricultural marketing (especially farmers markets), program evaluation and group facilitation continue into her retirement. She consults in these areas and volunteers through her company, Digging In! LLC.

Susan and her husband enjoy traveling – especially in France, but split most of their time between their East Lansing house and a lakeside cottage near Jackson, where she enjoys gardening, cooking, yoga, reading and needle arts. She is on a quest to bake bread as good as Zingermans and to develop jewelry making skills.