Meet Susie Smith

Ms. Susie Smith has been actively involved with The Friendship Force since its inception in 1977. At that time, Susie was a high school student who traveled to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, on the very first Friendship Force exchange. Susie began to learn the basic elements of Friendship Force international operations as she worked in the office throughout high school and college. Upon graduation from Presbyterian College with a BS in Political Science, Susie worked as a paralegal for five years. However, The Friendship Force was too much in her heart to stay away for long. Over the next decade, Susie dedicated her full-time efforts to help bring people of different cultures together in friendship. 

In 1991, Susie began working at FFI as World Citizens Exchange Coordinator (this program was the precursor of Bridgebuilders). When the Friend-to-Friend humanitarian exchange program began with the former Soviet Union, Susie moved to Moscow and worked as Regional Representative for 18 months. Then, long-time Director of Operations Bobbie Jones, an early mentor to Susie, moved to Singapore in 1993, and encouraged the Board to appoint Susie as the organization's next Director of Operations. As part of FFI's senior management team, Susie gained invaluable experience and insights into the unique challenges and rewards of exchange operations. During the next three years, Susie worked daily with the exchange coordinators and the entire operations support team, i.e. travel, finance, membership, development and club training, to ensure the success of volunteer-led exchanges around the world.

By the mid-1990's, the Bridgebuilders exchanges which Susie helped pioneer while in Russia, were growing stronger in number around the world. Susie proposed the formation of the Bridgebuilders Department which could handle the many FFI programs beyond individual club exchanges. As Director of Bridgebuilders, Susie developed and managed special interest Bridgebuilders exchanges, Friendship Festivals, and grant-funded programs such as "Sisters Embracing a Dream," a month-long training program for women from the former Soviet Union to address issues of violence against women. In 1996, Susie became Vice President of FFI and gained further experience in managing office operations and developing new clubs and programs. Susie organized ground‑breaking exchanges to countries such as Bosnia, Cuba, Belize, Vietnam and China. By 1998, Susie had spent 8 years learning how to effectively support the healthy functioning of The Friendship Force system and the administrative operations at FFI.

In 1998, Susie decided it was the right time to pursue a long-held dream. She entered graduate school in California to study cross-cultural psychology in-depth. She purposefully moved her focus away from the daily management of Friendship Force to gain new and different perspectives of cross-cultural interactions. Since moving to California in 1998, Susie earned her M.A. in Psychology and added immeasurably to her non-profit management experience. During graduate school, Susie worked as Administrative Manager for the World Without War Council and a Crisis Specialist for Managed Health Network. Most recently, Susie has gained two  years of professional fundraising experience as Administrative & Executive Affairs Manager of The Yosemite Fund, a San Francisco based non-profit which raises approximately $4 million annually to benefit Yosemite National Park. Susie is eager to apply her recent fundraising, administrative and cross-cultural psychology skills and experiences to the success of Friendship Force International.

ssmith@friendshipforce.org

404.522.9490

404.688.6148 fax