DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT

Susan Davis-Ali, PhD (Susan Davis) graduated from Mariemont High School with the class of 1982. She was a class officer for two years, a loud and proud cheerleader for four years, and was actively involved on the yearbook staff. After an undergraduate career at Miami University, Susan furthered her education by obtaining a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan.

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Susan moved to Minnesota with her husband in 1992, and for over a decade was a successful business executive in test development. However, in 2006, Susan followed her passion and started her own e-platform leadership development and coaching company called Leadhership1 (the “her” is for the company’s focus on women’s leadership). Susan’s area of expertise is in the retention and advancement of women technologists, and she developed a program that is used with women all around the world who work for large technology companies.

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Susan also serves as the Chief Social Science Advisor to the Anita Borg Institute – the premier nonprofit organization serving women technologists. She published a book called How to Become Successful Without Becoming a Man and was a weekly career advice columnist for USA Today. In her “spare” time, Susan volunteers for non-profits that serve the homeless in St. Paul, MN, where she lives with her husband Jeff and their children Kate (19) and Andrew (14). She returns to Mariemont often to visit her family in her childhood home on Fieldhouse Way and she still calls Mariemont “home.”