Seton Hill University has honored Susan Printy with the Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award for 2020.

Following her 1970 graduation from Seton Hill with a degree in English, Susan Printy completed her training to become a high school teacher while bringing up three children. Susan taught American literature and English literature for 18 years at a rural public high school in Bellevue, Ohio where she was also the yearbook advisor and assistant drama director. She later earned a Master of Education in Educational Administration from Bowling Green State University, and, at the age of 48 when her youngest child went off to college, Susan entered a full-time doctoral program at The Ohio State University. Susan is an associate professor emeritus of K-12 educational administration in the College of Education at Michigan State University where her research interests centered on two ideas: that schools improve when they are learning organizations and that schools enjoy a range of positive outcomes when principals share leadership with teachers. She was the key architect in the design and implementation of Michigan State’s Doctor of Educational Leadership, infusing the curriculum with the core values of social justice, engagement and collaboration and serving as the program’s first director. With two of her Michigan State colleagues, Susan engaged with administrators at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan to develop and implement a new MA in Educational Management.

The Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award is one of the highest honors given to a graduate, and since 1987, when the award program was established, more than 200 Setonians have been named distinguished alumni for their leadership in education, business, science and technology, the arts, volunteerism and philanthropy. Find out more at setonhill.edu/alumni.