Susan is a very special person who happens to be in a very special position – she gets to work two jobs! For three days of the week she works with the MAC (Marketing and Campaigns) team as the Data Coordinator. Here she works with the team to prepare data files for their campaigns and help report on the results of their work. These reports show what does and doesn’t work and helps guide the team in future decision making.

On the other two days Susan works with the PPT (Programs and Policy) team as their Performance Effectiveness Officer. She works closely with the Performance Effectiveness Coordinator to improve the quality of their program work. This year Act for Peace is undertaking DFAT Accreditation and in preparation for this Susan is helping in the revision of policies, procedures, tools and templates.

Susan began at AfP as a volunteer back in 2010 when her job was to enter returned survey data into survey monkey and our ThankQ database. She learned quickly how AfP worked: who they helped, where they worked and why they did it. Susan also got to know what working at AfP was like and when offered an internship, she jumped at the chance. Eventually she moved into a paid role and has changed roles and job names more times than she can remember. Amongst them Susan has done everything from supporter care work to managing volunteers to coordinating the Gifts for Peace catalogue.

Outside of work Susan enjoys reading and watching films. She really loves to potter about in her garden and watch it transform over time (with or without her help). A few years ago Susan was dragged to a kayaking class by a neighbour and found that she loved being on the water. Susan says her ultimate holiday would be to kayak in the Antarctica.

Susan cannot name any single person as a hero but is inspired by a number of different qualities in people she has met. The people she finds inspiration in are those who don’t give up but rather keep looking for solutions, who maintain their equanimity no matter how harshly they are attacked and who lead by setting an example.

As Susan says “I get to see people like this every day that I come to work”.