Susan Byrnes

Susan Byrnes has spent her professional career in communications and journalism, with a focus on social impact. She joined the foundation in 2007 to lead communications for the Global Development Program and spent seven years in a variety of communications leadership roles, overseeing all aspects of the foundation’s global communications functions. In 2015, Susan joined foundation grantee Malaria No More as managing director, strategic communications. Susan returned to the foundation in 2017.

Susan previously spent a decade in journalism, first as a news producer for Italian national television (RAI-Uno) and then as a reporter for The Los Angeles Times. She also worked as a reporter, columnist, and editorial writer at The Seattle Times. 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.

Susan serves on the board of Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC), an organization that provides housing, emergency shelter, crisis intervention, and health care to some of the region’s most marginalized people.