Susan was born and raised in Shropshire where she trained as a Nurse. Moving to London to study Midwifery, Susan then volunteered with an NGO and moved to Yemen to run a rural health centre. Susan spent many years being deployed to countries in Africa and Asia, mostly in humanitarian contexts. After completing post graduate studies in Management, she worked in Headquarter offices in the USA and the UK in various roles, latterly as strategy director for humanitarian and emergency affairs.