Our Team
Education
- B.A. in Business, Arizona State University
- Master of Business Administration, Darden School of Business at University of Virginia
Who Are You When No One Is Watching?
When no one is watching, I am simply me—unfiltered, real, and unapologetically authentic. I’ve learned that confidence comes from embracing who I am, not who I think I should be, and that true connection is built on honesty, not perfection.
Elevator Pitch
Susie founded and has led the consulting firm SPG Associates for over 20 years. She draws upon her deep expertise to serve as a partner to help guide clients on how to strategically lead with purpose and agility and turn uncertainty into opportunity. She provides hands-on strategic planning, execution and innovation expertise to top management teams in the private, public and non-profit sectors. One of her particular focus areas is developing and executing agile and adaptive performance based strategic plans that are designed, from the beginning, to guide an organization to successful operational implementation of those plans. She also has developed a deep level of expertise in innovation and design thinking which she uses to help clients, as well as students, nurture and develop new ideas and thinking.
Susie also serves as Executive in Residence and Professor of the Practice at UNC Chapel Hill’s Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship. She teaches ECON 125, the gateway class to the Shuford program. Over the course of the semester, students are exposed to building the foundational skills to identify and develop innovative entrepreneurial venture ideas. Students learn about innovating, marshaling limited resources, inspiring teams, and persisting through challenges and uncertainty, often by trying, learning from what happens, and trying something better. Inherent in the process, students will be exposed to the skills, joys, and frustrations of being an entrepreneur. The class employs experiential methods of teaching, so students learn by doing as they develop the skills, tools, and mindsets that will help them in their entrepreneurial path both in organizations they start or join, and in their personal life.
Susie received her M.B.A. from the University of Virginia’s Darden School. At the beginning of her second year of study, she was the recipient of The Darden School’s Robert Strauss Marketing Award and Fellowship. She also received a specialization in Design Thinking certification from UVA’s Darden School.
Susie is very passionate about philanthropy, both with the clients she works with through SPG Associates, as well as through being very involved in supporting a number of non-profit organizations, including serving on the Board, and as an Executive Committee member, for the United Way of the Greater Triangle. She also previously served as the Vice Chair of the Board for the Chapel Hill Carrboro YMCA, followed by serving as a Board member for the YMCA of the Triangle.
“It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” — Mae Jemison
Course(s) Taught
- ECON 125 Introduction to Entrepreneurship