Susie Smith Mahmud grew up around education. As the daughter of a career educator, she went from hearing the classroom stories around the dinner table to advocating for student voice as a high school student  to teaching in classrooms of her own. Beginning her advocacy journey with the Kentucky Student Voice Team –  she testified before state Congress for more equitable funding, conducted  and published research on post-secondary educational opportunities for Kentucky students, and visited schools across the state to talk to students about what they wanted to see in their schools. Susie was an early believer in the power of young people and active participation in democracy for all ages and she carries this belief with her in all of her work today. She began her teaching career by moving to Massachusetts to serve as a corps member with Teach for America in Lawrence teaching middle school math. She returned to the humanities world, teaching high school U.S. History, Government, Economics, Psychology, and World History in Lynn, MA. As a teacher, Susie saw firsthand the impact that this student-led, project-based, and relevant teaching and learning can have on the engagement, achievement, and joy of students and teachers. She was part of the second cohort of the Springpoint Schools Transformative Leaders of Massachusetts Fellowship where she spent two years learning how to design and lead schools that are doing education differently. After classroom teaching, she moved into school leadership and served as an Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction at a middle school in Cambridge, MA.

Now Susie gets to continue doing the things she loves: designing engaging learning for students, working shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers and leaders, and creating classrooms and schools that can transform education to be equitable, effective, and exciting.

Susie holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Kentucky (Go Cats!) and a M.Ed in Curriculum and Teaching from Boston University. Susie lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband, Malik, and cat, Biscuit, where Susie loves to read, cook, and is trying to grow as many herbs and vegetables as humanly possible on a small patio.