A Minnesota native and the eldest of seven, Susan graduated from the College of St. Teresa (CST) in Winona Minnesota with a B.S. degree in nursing. Clinical affiliations for the degree were with the hospitals of the Mayo Clinic in nearby Rochester, Minnesota.
Susan was a member of the second Tanzanian Peace Corps group, Tanganyika II, serving from 1962-64. T II was an all female contingent of registered nurses and two medical technologists. Following a brief period at Syracuse University as Peace Corps training staff, she returned for a second tour.
Post-Peace Corps, Susan pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Schools of Nursing and Public Health, and the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley where she completed a Master of Public Health degree (MPH). She met and married John Proctor, a fellow RPCV (Costa Rica, ’63-‘65), and raised two sons. Later, she again enrolled in the University of California system, earning a PhD in nursing from UC San Francisco.
Susan spent 30 years as nursing faculty at California State University, Sacramento. She served 3½ years as Executive Editor of The Journal of School Nursing, a refereed publication of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN).
Susan and her husband live on five acres in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. They have five grandchildren, all residing in Oregon.