Susan Byrnes leads the communications team responsible for global campaigns, creative content, and media engagement to drive impact for the foundation’s priorities.

Susan has spent her professional career in communications and journalism, with a focus on social impact. She joined the foundation in 2007 and spent seven years in a variety of communications leadership roles, including interim chief communications officer. In 2015, Susan joined foundation grantee Malaria No More as managing director, Strategic Communications. In that role, she supported key malaria partners, including the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, and drove global media coverage and conversation to help mobilize resources and political will to end malaria. Susan returned to the foundation in March 2017.

Susan’s early career was in journalism. She worked as a staff writer, editorial writer, and columnist for The Seattle Times; a general assignment reporter for The Los Angeles Times; and a news producer for Italian national television (RAI-Uno). Prior to that, Susan spent a year in a village in the Casamance region of Senegal, where she worked with a local agricultural organization and participated in health and education projects. Susan earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Brown University and a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.