Susannah Schaefer

About This Project

Summary

Since being named Smile Train’s CEO in 2013, Susannah “Susie” Schaefer has led the organization to become the world’s largest and most influential cleft charity. Under her guidance, we have sponsored more than 2M cleft surgeries in 90+ countries, greatly expanded and scaled essential non-surgical cleft care around the world, helped raise global awareness of clefts, reached new fundraising milestones domestically and globally, and made Smile Train a more inclusive, diverse workplace.

Goals & Objectives

Susie’s goals for Smile Train include: -Building cleft care capacity and expertise in low-resource regions -Increasing non-surgical cleft care at our partner centers -Expanding fundraising -Putting clefts on the global health agenda -Fostering a diverse workplace with women & minorities in key

Results & Impact

-Led with skill through the pandemic. By Sept. 2022, we had resumed sponsoring surgeries in 75+ countries -Women comprise 69% of VP-level and higher employees -Launched programs that have trained 100k+ medical professionals -Made vital non-surgical cleft care available in 35+ countries