Susan has a broad and generalized past in the position as Secretary. Her first secretarial position in 1972 was a bilingual (Spanish and English) role in the department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University Medical School. She fell in love with Mexico on a trip with a surgical team on which she was the translator for surgeons from both countries. She later served as Office Manager for a plastic surgeon in Eureka, California before switching lanes to the office equipment business.

 

After a vacation in Mexico in 1984 with her husband, Ted Rose, the couple became involved with a primary school in the village where they now live - Cofradia de Suchitlan in the state of Colima. ​During their visit, they learned that many children dropped out of school by third or fourth grade to work in the fields, or to care for younger siblings at home while their parents worked in the fields, they decided to move to Mexico to see what they could do to improve the education opportunities in small villages like theirs.

 

She and Ted founded a 501(c)3 non-profit in 1996 to expand their educational opportunities. Now, thirty-years later, children not only complete primary school; most of them go on to finish junior high and high school. More than 100 students have completed university.

 

Now retired from the organization, she is eager to serve Adopt-A-Village in Guatemala and focus her efforts with the Maya children.

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