Susan Horrell

Director of Strategic Partnerships

Susan Gordon Horrell (she/her) builds and develops cross-sector partnerships and innovative collaborations that accelerate cures for all rare cancer patients.  

Prior to RCRF, Susan was the Director of Partnerships at Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, which focused on innovation in youth mental health support on a global scale. She developed partnerships with companies including Starbucks and Under Armour, nonprofits such as DonorsChoose and Together Rising, and over 400 other partners in her four years at the organization. Susan began her career working for Sean Parker, first as his Chief of Staff, then as the Director of Nonprofit Services for Causes.com, an online platform that brought together over 186 million users and 20,000 nonprofit partners to create online communities for social change. She then became a registered nurse and worked in the Medical Intensive Care Unit and later the Emergency Department of Duke University Hospital. She has consulted for 410 Medical, a medical device company, and the Chordoma Foundation, a cancer research foundation. She serves on the board of the Alliance for Rare Cancers.

Susan is originally from Minnesota and she has a History degree from Dartmouth College, a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Duke University School of Nursing, and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.