After completing an honours degree in Biochemistry at the University of Otago, New Zealand, Susan moved to Sydney to take up a PhD position at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. She then moved to Sweden to undertake postdoctoral research at the Stem Cell Institute at Lund University. She left the bench to enter a career in scientific publishing in 2008, joining Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology as Associate Editor, and was appointed Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Nephrology in 2009. In June 2020 Susan took on an expanded role as Consulting Editor for Nature.