Susan N. Wilson, M.S.Ed., served for 23 years as the executive director of the Network for Family Life Education, now called Answer, located in the Center for Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

A state and national leader in the fight for effective sexuality/family life education and prevention of adolescent pregnancy, Wilson planned and managed the operations of a resource, advocacy and technical assistance organization committed to improving sexuality education programs in public schools and community agencies.

Susie Wilson is shown below with some of the teens from the Network for Family Life Education.

Wilson helped develop Sex etc., a free national

newsletter by teens for teens published by Answer, Center for Applied Psychology, Rutgers University. Wilson also helped establish a web site for teens where they can get accurate and honest information, www.sexetc.org.

She began her work after a term on the New Jersey State Board of Education, where she was the architect of a statewide policy that remains in place today requiring sexuality education in NJ public schools. She served as vice president of the board and chaired the Law Committee.

Wilson recently completed a term on the New Jersey’s Advisory Council on Adolescent Pregnancy, having served as its first chair. She served on the advisory panel of Johnson & Johnson’s National Urban Adolescent Pregnancy Initiative and the Task Force for State and Local Coalitions of the National Campaign.

Local, State and National Awards
Wilson has received local, state and national awards for her work. In 2004, she received a Tribute to Women award from the YWCA of Princeton; in 2003, she received awards from the National Association of Social Workers of NJ (Citizen of the Year), the Business and Professional Women of NJ (Woman of Achievement) and National Organization for Women of NJ (Women Making History). She received the Society for Adolescent Medicine’s regional award and the YWCA of Trenton Women of Achievement Award in 2001, the Richard J. Cross Award for distinguished contributions to the field of human sexuality from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1998, and a Children’s Defense Fund (Washington, DC) Leadership Award in 1987.

Wilson, a graduate of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, received an M.S.Ed. (Master of Science in Education) degree in education supervision and administration from Bank Street College, New York, NY and taught reading for five years in the public schools of New York and Washington DC.

She has authored many articles on sexuality education and appeared on numerous radio and television shows. A resident of Princeton, she is married to Donald M. Wilson, the former publisher of NJBiz. They have three adult children and five grandchildren.

Current Activities
Currently, Wilson serves on the board of trustees of the Princeton Area Community Foundation and works part-time as the project coordinator of the Community Foundation’s Community Experience Partnership: Engaging Older Adults for Civic Good. She is a member of the board of New Jersey Policy Perspectives, a progressive statewide think tank. She is also a Policy Fellow at the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University.