Susan Burgess-Lent
Susan Burgess-Lent is a novelist, essayist, and veteran international aid worker whose thirty-year career spans international travel for research, humanitarian program management, and advocacy for women in conflict zones. Her work in East Africa informs much of her writing.
Susan is the founder of Women’s Centers International, creating safe resource spaces for women affected by war and poverty. She previously served as Program Director for the Darfur Peace and Development Organization, assisting the recovery of primary schools and creating the first two Women’s Centers in Sudan.
Her professional life also included television journalism as a news editor with NBC, CBS, Voice of America, and other broadcasters.
Susan is the author of the novel When All the Girls Stopped Singing (2026), the memoir Trouble Ahead: Dangerous Missions with Desperate People (2019) and the novel In the Borderlands (2000).