Susan Clary

Vice-Chairman / Secretary

About Susan:

Susan Clary is a native Floridian with a lifelong love of the environment. Born and raised in St. Petersburg, she grew up swimming, sailing and scuba diving off the Gulf of Mexico. As a young naturalist, Susan explored the state's beautiful resources from as far north as Panama City and St. George's Island to Central Florida's Wekiva Springs, Canaveral National Seashore and Fort DeSoto, south to Islamorada, Marathon and Key West. She grew up handling snakes and turtles, became a certified NAUI scuba diver at age 15, camped along the Suwanee River and went spelunking in the caves of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

Susan's nature exploration has taken her beyond her home state to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Big Bend National Park in Texas, the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon in Arizona, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks in California, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, Niagara Falls in Canada and the U.S., Mesa Verde, Hoover Dam and the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington and Acadia National Park in Maine.

Currently, Susan serves as a Board Member for Orange Audubon and on its Conservation Committee. She belongs to many conservation organizations, volunteers much of her time to those efforts and appreciates Florida's wilderness.

To earn a living, Susan is Communications Specialist working in government. Previously, she worked as a criminal defense investigator and special projects director. After graduation from Winter Park's Rollins College with an English degree, Susan joined the St. Petersburg Times as a journalist covering criminal justice and legal affairs. She served as a reporter and columnist for 10 years covering politics, trends, the environment and the Hispanic community. Susan returned to Orange County eight years ago and joined the Orlando Sentinel as its federal and state court reporter, often appearing as a television reporter on cable news partner CFN-13. She also had a stint covering the environment in West Orange.

Susan continued studies in journalism at the University of South Florida, was chosen as a Knight Fellow in Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland and completed course work through the Hillsborough Community College Environmental Studies Program.

As a journalist, Susan was honored for deadline reporting with the Sigma Delta Chi Award, Green Eyeshade Award, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors Award, National Headliner Award and Society of Professional Journalists Award. She was named Tampa's Hispanic Woman of the Year in Media. She was appointed by the Orange Soil & Water Conservation District to serve as an Associate Supervisor before her election to Supervisor.

Susan, whose mother is Cuban, is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, a Board Member of the Hughes Supply Boys & Girls Club working on a club in the Parramore neighborhood and was appointed to serve on the city's Certification Appeal Board. She is an affiliate member of the Orange County Bar Association, a board-certified and Florida-licensed Investigator and a Florida Supreme Court Certified County Mediator. She lives in Winter Park with her menagerie.

OSWCD Board of Supervisors

Elected Supervisors