SUSAN BENFORD was elected to the Philanos board in 2020 and served as vice chair, becoming chair in July 2021. She was on the steering committee for PowerUP! 2020 and co-led the organization of conference breakout sessions. She was on the board of The Philanthropy Connection, MA, for seven years, during which she was president and chair of development from 2016 to 2019, and held other leadership roles in grants, membership, governance, and the diversity task force.
Additionally, Susan is on the board of Resilient Coders, a non-profit that trains Black and Brown youth in Boston and Philadelphia to become software engineers through a free coding bootcamp. Previously, she served for seven years on the Foundation Board for the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and for four years on the Boston Board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which funds research into the causes and cure for Type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes. She received her MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Texas in Austin. Susan lives with her husband outside Boston, has two adult, married sons and one spoiled golden retriever.
