Susan Gonzales

Susan Gonzales recently began providing independent consulting services to companies interested in building strategic relationships with leaders and organizations of under-represented communities to communicate public policy issues, improve social responsibility and support business growth. Previously, she served as Director of Community Engagement for Facebook where she managed the company’s community engagement strategy. Susan created the company’s first community engagement team and served as the company’s primary liaison and external representative to these communities. Susan led the creation of strategic relationships and partnerships with leaders of under-represented communities. She integrated these communities into the company to foster understanding and support Facebook’s business strategies and community investments. She also worked closely with federal, state and local policymakers to educate them about the company’s public policy issues. Susan served in this role for 5 years.
Prior to joining Facebook, Susan was Vice President of the Comcast Foundation and Senior Director of External Affairs for 9 years. In that position, Susan created the company’s external affairs strategy focused on strategic relationships with leaders of under-represented communities. Susan served as external representative and led the negotiations with key diverse leaders during the NBCU acquisition resulting in MOU’s with key communities and creating a path for public support. Susan also served as a lobbyist to federal and state policymakers.
Susan joined Comcast from serving as a Corporate Communications professional from companies including Levi Strauss & Co., technology start-ups and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.
Susan is a Board member of the Eva Longoria Foundation and the Friends of the National American Latino Smithsonian Museum. Susan serves as an Advisor to Sheryl Sandberg and LeanIn.org. She has served in this role since the book launched in 2013. Susan has been mentoring 4 high school students from East Palo Alto for the past 3 years. She has mentored minority youth for roughly fifteen years.
She served as a U.S. Commissioner for the National American Latino Museum. She also served as Co-Chair and Board Member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington, D.C.
Susan has a B.S. from San Diego State University and she completed an executive MBA program at UCLA Anderson School of Business. She grew up in Hawthorne, CA and currently resides in the Bay Area.