Susan Foster brings over 20 years of clinical, research, and program evaluation experience to Northnode. With a specialization in underserved children and families, her research and consulting focuses on community-based initiatives intended to create systems change. She has designed and conducted numerous evaluations of efforts to develop collaborative structures that integrate services to diverse groups of people, including low-income pregnant and parenting women and people with HIV, mental illness, and co-occurring disorders. As a high level manager in a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting homeless families, Susan was responsible for staff supervision, project management, and technical assistance and evaluation services. Her research career builds on years of clinical social work experience with women recovering from addiction and with children and families with HIV/AIDS.

Susan provides consultation to local and national nonprofit organizations on the design, implementation, and management of community-based research and evaluation. Her services include needs and assets assessment, logic model development, evaluation design, and development of data collection and reporting mechanisms. Susan received her master's degrees in social work and public health from Columbia University in 1986, and she holds a license in clinical social work.