Celebrating Susan Bloomfield's Career Leap

Susan Bloomfield and her sister were the first generation in their family to attend college. Susan didn’t initially know what she wanted to do for a career. However, after her first marketing class (which she loved), she set her sights on becoming a Consumer Packaged Goods Brand Manager.

Susan has always been goal oriented. Nearly everything she did in college was focused toward building her resume to achieve her goals. Fairly soon after graduating from college and obtaining her master’s degree, she became an Assistant Brand Manager working for Johnson and Johnson, one of the world’s most-respected marketing companies. Subsequent moves up the corporate ladder had her rising to Director to VP to General Manager. Staying laser-focused for over 20 years, she achieved a pinnacle in her profession after having been elevated to the top job in J&J’s premier skin care company, Neutrogena Corporation.

In achieving significant success at work, Susan found herself reviewing her goals once again. This time, with the added perspective of years of growth and achievement, Susan realized even more that it’s your purpose, not your position that matters.

“Throughout all of the years of climbing the corporate ladder, I constantly looked up and was motivated to achieve the next higher position. But this time, after running the company for several years, I looked up and for the first time ever, found myself uninspired.”

It didn’t take Susan long to figure out how she was going to make a difference in this next, and arguably, the most important phase of her life.

Susan is a product of public education and highly values its vast impact on society. Through her volunteer and philanthropic efforts, she’s seen firsthand the well-documented inequity in education. Children lucky enough to be born into wealthy households have access to better schools than those born into poverty. The fact that one’s zip code determines the quality of the education children receive is not just unfair, it is “unconscionably unfair” according to Susan.

Susan’s “leap” over the last two years has been transitioning from a senior corporate executive into the unpaid, but incredibly impactful, field of political philanthropy. Susan believes that too many politicians are elected by “special interest money” from those who want political favors in return for their support. And, all too often, it’s the children of underserved communities, who suffer the consequences.

Susan defines political philanthropy as helping elect intelligent, ethical individuals to public office. In return, all she asks that they apply their skills to making decisions designed to lift up society overall and enact legislation that is good for the entire community, not just for a select few special interests. She fervently believes that doing so will lead to a public school system that is significantly more fair, especially to those students most in need.

She Built It celebrates your leap. Cheers to you, Susan Bloomfield.