Susan is a geologist, geophysicist, journalist and 'extreme' snorkeler with an intense curiosity about planetary processes, the marine environment, climate change and global sustainability issues.

A member of the New York Explorers Club, Susan's exploration interests have evolved from her scientific, environmental and journalistic backgrounds which flow together seamlessly on a continuum. She's incorporated the sciences of geology and geophysics into field work being conducted on climate change around the world, with a particular interest and focus on polar regions. An extreme snorkeler, her area of interest — and expertise — is exploring the planet from the water-air-land interface which provides a unique window to investigate the flora and fauna of the planet's largely unexplored oceans and adjacent land masses.

Susan returns to Antarctica in February 2012, participating in the International Antarctic Expedition (IAE) which focuses on climate change, renewable energy and global sustainability issues. Led by Robert Swan, OBE, the IAE 2012 includes a Leadership on the Edge Program, designed to promote team work in harsh conditions and to create environmental educators at the personal, corporate, community and country levels. Robert Swan, OBE, the first man to walk (unassisted) to both the South and North Pole. In November 2012, Swan will make history again, by walking to the South Pole, supported solely by solar and wind power.

As a public speaker, Susan conveys the excitement and romance of modern-day polar exploration, delivering multi-media presentations to diverse audiences for educational and awareness purposes. On May 19, 2012, Susan will present "A Geoscientist in Antarctica: Following in Shackleton's Footsteps One Hundred Years Later," at the Houston Museum of Natural Science's IMAX Theatre. Hosted by the Houston Geological Society, her presentation will reach an audience comprised of school children, university students, the general public and geoscientists.

As a geologist and geophysicist, Susan has developed a successful career in the Canadian energy sector, attaining the position of Vice President of Exploration in several junior oil and gas companies. Known for her business acumen, she's been listed in the Who's Who of Canadian Women Directory. Through her wholly owned consultancy, SR ECO Consultants Inc., Susan works as a geoscientist, consulting to the Canadian, American and international petroleum and financial sectors on oil and gas exploration and production, environmental risk assessments, media relations and  acquisitions and divestitures.

Equipped with degrees in biology, geology, geophysics and journalism, Susan began her broadcasting career in 1987, as a television reporter with CBC-TV. Since then, she's successfully blended her scientific and journalistic skills to tell stories which, she believes, engages the reader in the natural world around us. A member of the Canadian Science Writers' Association, she specializes in reporting on science and technology, business, oil and gas, renewable energy, the environment, ecotourism and extreme snorkeling. Susan contributes regularly to several Canadian and American magazines and publications, including newspapers. Her articles and photographs have been published in Alberta Oil, New Technology Magazine, Enviroline, Popular Mechanics, the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal, the Vancouver Sun, Business Edge News Magazine, EXPLORER Magazine, The PEG and the Financial Post.
 
Susan's essays about her extreme snorkeling adventures describe appropriate and respectful interactions with marine life, and investigate the environmental challenges facing these fragile ecosystems. And, as far as snorkeling goes, she confirms that snorkeling in Antarctica and South Georgia — in a gin-and-tonic ice mix with Leopard seals, top predators in the Southern Ocean — is as 'extreme' as it gets...

In 2010, Susan's exploration interests took her to Antarctica and South Georgia where she participated — as an explorer, geoscientist and journalist — in the Elysium Visual Epic Expedition. Headed by Michael AW, Fellow of the Explorers Club, Elysium carried the Explorer Club Flag #108 which was unfurled on Elephant Island, a desolate piece of rock and glacier where Sir Ernest Shackleton's crew were stranded, in 1916, for four months. Elysium's mission was to study climate change and to document, scout and record the flora and fauna — both above and below the water — of this last remaining frontier.

Involved in the grassroots conservation movement since 1990, Susan sits on the board of directors of the southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, a not-for-profit environmental organization. Whether participating in a Spanish-speaking Outward Bound School for environmentalists in the jungles of Costa Rica or climbing 300 feet into the old growth rainforest canopy of Carmanah Valley on Vancouver Island, Susan has always had an up-close-and-personal relationship with the wild spaces — and animals who call them home — that she's committed to protecting.

In recognition of Susan's twenty years of environmental leadership in Canada, she was selected an Olympic Torch relay runner for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.