Susan Underhill

Director

Driven by a passion to transform public services to work better for citizens, Susan has 20 years of experience managing large-scale transformation projects in the public sector.

She holds a master’s degree in psychology and applies her background in positive psychology to her consulting. She facilitates collaborative processes to find innovative solutions to complex problems. Susan is sensitive to the needs of diverse groups and is an inclusive leader and systems thinker.

Influential work

Defined a new operating model for human resources services at the University of Alberta, transforming business processes and introducing an onboarding program
Developed an elder care and housing strategy with 32 northern, remote, fly-in First Nations communities and supported a successful application for 96 additional long-term beds at Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre
Designed a new structure to support legislative changes to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care’s long-term care quality inspections program and provided change management and implementation support
Provided advice and support on incorporating Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) into Data Innovation Analytics at the Department of National Defense
Led seven projects to transfer training and employment services from the federal government to the province, including developing the Employment Ontario Service Delivery Framework and integrating service delivery across channels.

Outside of Nous

Prior to joining Nous, Susan gained valuable experience as a consultant working at PwC, BearingPoint and a mid-size consulting firm. In 2018, she launched her own consulting firm where she partnered with Indigenous consultants to support reconciliation and health transformation within Indigenous communities. The other focus for Susan’s business was to provide advice and support to women’s organizations focused on ending violence against women.

Susan is committed to public service excellence and worked in several strategic roles within the Ontario Public Sector. She was an active member of the Board of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada for 10 years and sat on the selection committee for the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Distinction In Public Administration from 2014 – 2020.

Susan holds a Master of Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Trent University. She is a graduate in Professional Coaching from Adler Graduate Professional School and a member of the International Coaching Federation and the Project Management Institute.

In her spare time...

In COVID times, Susan has been enjoying walking, meditation, paddle boarding, cycling, playing board games and backyard chats. In non-COVID times she also enjoys curling and euchre nights.