Retired St. Louis Public Schools Divisional Director for Career & Technical Education  

Susan Katzman retired from St. Louis Public Schools as divisional director for Career & Technical Education in 2005. During her 36 years with the school district, she taught at Beaumont High School for 10 years and then had management responsibilities for career education, summer school, curriculum writing and revision, technical education and career academies. She also was engaged in special projects including magnet/alternative school development, opening of school events, district reports to the community, development of grants from federal, state, and local entities and the design, construction and programmatic development of a new $30M academic and technical high school, the Clyde C. Miller Career Academy.

Over the years, while Director of Career Education, she and her staff developed (through the Voluntary Desegregation Program) a comprehensive preschool-grade 12 program that included classroom curricula and over 15 experiential programs for students. The curricula were sold nationally and the staff helped over 26 cities, including Paris, France, replicate the yearly Career Awareness Fair at America’s Center held for over 12,000 area eighth graders and 900 businesspersons. The Career Education program received national recognition, including designation as a model youth employment/training program through the Council of the Great City Schools and the National Planning for Life Award through the U.S. Army and USA Today.

Nationally, Susan is the past president of the National Career Academy Coalition. She has keynoted or presented at over 85 national conferences; written curriculum guides; developed college and career programs that are now used as national models; designed and conducted training on national standards for career academies, and corporate-education involvement. Susan currently serves as a consultant through The SEK Group.

She serves on the board of the St. Louis Community Credit Union. She was board chair of Prosperity Connection and President of the National Council of Jewish Women-STL. She was a founding member of the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience and serves on its board and a collaborator on the internship program. Susan helped start the Michael Thomas Scholarship Fund and Susan’s New Journey Fund. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin/Madison.