This article is part of a series shining a spotlight on the personalities and priorities of Dal's senior leadership team. Revisit previous profiles at the Leadership and Vision website.
Susan Spence has many memories of a distinguished middle-distance running career, one in which she ranked as high as 10th in Canada. She pauses to reflect on one such moment during a national cross country final in Halifax: 鈥淎ll I remember is Point Pleasant Park, where the race took place, this beautiful beach, looking at the ocean.鈥�
There were many travels during those competitive years, dedicated training, contacts and friendships made. Collectively, she believes they propelled her toward a successful career in planning and administration. They equipped her with the discipline and focus.
鈥淎thletics can teach a person a sense of commitment, time management, dedication鈥攕o many transferrable elements that apply to other areas of your life,鈥� Spence says. 鈥淭he doors it opens and the people you meet, the influence those people have on one鈥檚 life.鈥�
Years later, she would return to that moment of beauty in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She鈥檇 spent a decade in Houston, living with her two children and working in senior leadership positions at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.听 With plans to eventually return home to Canada, a move to Halifax, Nova Scotia enabled that, and when the opportunity arose to be associate dean of health systems & policy in the Faculty of Medicine at Dal arose, and she took it.
鈥淔rom my first visit to Halifax it felt right 鈥� the size of the city, what it had to offer, a great place to raise children鈥� she says. 鈥淭he opportunity to work here at Dal, and to be part of this environment, was very exciting. Not a day goes by I don鈥檛 feel gratitude.鈥�
Looking towards leadership
Spence has come a long way from the Ottawa Valley, where her middle-distance running career began in high school. She graduated from Queen鈥檚 University with a BA in Health, and from University of Ottawa with a master鈥檚 degree in Health Administration.
鈥淚 was interested in the science part and the leadership part,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat MHA at the University of Ottawa is combined with their MBA program, so there were lots of course options in statistics, business practices, which would be applicable to any sector. For me it ended up being a very rich and relevant degree.鈥�
Where her athletics had once equipped her with skills she used in her career, her career has since taken her to cities around the world including London, England for five years, where she鈥檚 taken the opportunity to run in marathon events in London, Paris and the Berlin half-marathon 鈥� right after the wall came down, where she even received a piece of the wall as a post-race memento she has to this day. A year ago, she ran the New York Marathon, an aspiration set many years ago.
After her time in Dal鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine, Spence then moved into the role of associate vice-president academic, and later becoming vice-provost of planning and analytics in 2014. 鈥淓very day is different,鈥� she says of her current role.
鈥淭he word