Susan Cook has made a career of storytelling in many forms. 

As an internationally award-winning Creative Director, Susan has worked for ad agencies Ogilvy & Mather and FCB, for the Smithsonian’s African Art Museum, the White House, and collaborated with the United Nations. As Director of Graphics for a leading exhibit design firm, she helped convey her client’s stories. Currently, Susan is an exhibit designer for Montgomery County Parks.

Susan has felt most compelled to tell the stories of her ancestors like Julian Abele, one of the first Black architects of renown. 

Her primary ancestral muse has been Alethia Tanner. She has told Alethia’s story through public presentations, interpretive panels for the new Alethia Tanner Park in Washington DC, and an upcoming article for the White House Historical Association. Susan has created AlethiaTanner.com to track her research and findings. And she is working on a multi-episode podcast using historical documents, quotes, and newspaper articles to bring Alethia to life.

In Fall 2023, Susan will begin a composer residency at VCCA (Virginia Center forCreative Arts). While in residency, she will work on a soundscape project to convey Alethia’s world through sounds, tones, and voices to transport listeners on an emotive sensory journey round the streets where Alethia once walked.

Susan also loves growing her own food in the backyard that she shares with her partner. It’s a mini food forest and as it is often described, a mini-oasis.