Suzanne Spencer brings a wealth of experience and expertise in non-profit leadership and for-profit organizations to her career in community organizing and has been recognized for innovations in the field of mental health and addiction. Suzanne has pioneered innovative practices within the health and wellness terrain by mobilizing organizations, community partners, and diverse stakeholders to inform and transform the workplace, workforce, and community. Motivated by her belief in one’s ability to find wholeness through integrated strategies of self-advocacy and organizational care, Suzanne is the visionary behind such programs such as Project Trailblazer, What Happens After Narcan, and SUDTALKS, thus advancing the national dialogue on our public health crisis and opioid epidemic.

Suzanne enjoys fostering and leading collaborative teams with community wellness partners to focus on emergent social challenges. These collaborative teams have implemented programming that reduces the stigma surrounding neuro-diverse populations in the workplace, deploys compassionate leadership models, and designs sustainable intervention strategies to reduce long-term recidivism. With a special emphasis on processes that aid in workforce re-entry, the impact of these programs has helped build capacity in supportive workplace practices to reduce employers’ risk factors as they recruit from under-represented communities.

Her most recent initiative as co-founder of Heads Up Florida addresses vicarious trauma in school systems as a result of school personnel’s chronic exposure to students with adverse childhood experiences, school violence, and bullying. More broadly, her focus suggests the need to develop “trauma-informed” organizations in all contexts to support thriving workforces, workplaces, and individuals. She currently holds an undergraduate degree in Organizational Management, a Graduate degree in leadership, and will complete her Doctorate in Education in 2020.