Susan Bodary Partner
Susan is an education policy and reform leader with a proven track record of success in local, statewide and national education initiatives. Most recently, Susan led the Education First team providing strategic, research, facilitation and writing support for Tennessee's successful Race to the Top proposal that will bring more than $500 million to the state for education reform over the next four years. As part of the proposal, she also worked in concert with the Governor's Office to design and negotiate key operating partners for the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network. Other clients include Achieve, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Complete College America, Data Quality Campaign, Ohio College Access Network, The Cleveland Foundation, The Stone Foundation, Metro Nashville Public Schools/City of Nashville, Internationals Network of Public Schools and many others.
Before joining Education First, she served as the founding executive director of EDvention, a preschool-to-workforce consortium of more than 80 partners dedicated to accelerating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) talent to grow the economy. As part of this strategic effort, EDvention established Ohio's STEM Education Resource Center through a grant from the National Governor's Association and was a founding partner of the Dayton Regional STEM School.
Susan also served as a Distinguished Policy Associate at the University of Dayton's School of Education and Allied Professions and as a senior policy consultant with Achieve, a national education policy reform organization in Washington, D.C.
As education and workforce advisor to Ohio Governor Bob Taft, Susan led a policy team advising on early, primary, secondary and higher education as well as workforce development. She spearheaded the development and enactment of the Ohio Core, a rigorous high school curriculum to better prepare students for work, college and life that was signed into law in January 2007. Susan served as the executive director of Project READ, a coalition of more than 50 schools, businesses, and community organizations dedicated to addressing lifelong literacy issues. Project READ served as the resource for literacy advocacy in the Dayton region and throughout Ohio.
Susan holds bachelor degrees in public law and organizational communication from Eastern Michigan University and was honored with the university's Alumna Achievement Award in 2008. She has three school-aged children.