Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Apgood. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Susan Matthews Apgood is the founder of News Generation, a premier media relations firm which she launched in 1997, and sold to 4media group in April of 2020. Apgood is active in a number of public relations associations, including Washington Women in Public Relations. She was on the board for eight years total, most recently serving as treasurer from January 2019 to 2022, and now serves on WWPR’s Advisory Board.
Apgood was a finalist for WWPR’s Woman of the Year in 2023. She is also active in the Public Relations Society of America, National Capital Chapter, and was on the board of directors for 13 years. In November of 2022, she was inducted into the PRSA-NCC Hall of Fame. Since 2016, Apgood has been an adjunct professor in the Kogod School of Business at American University teaching Women in Organizational Leadership, Business Ethics and Introduction to Business.
In August 2022, she and a colleague won the Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award for the best course design of their class, Women in Organizational Leadership. The leadership course became a permanent course on AU’s curriculum in October 2023. Apgood received recognition with an Adjunct Award from the Management Department in April 2024.
She is a business facilitator and coaches women in workshops and private sessions to help them start, grow, and scale businesses through the consultancy EmpowHERed. She earned her MBA in finance from American University and BA in economics from George Washington University. For fun, she does yoga and plays golf. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We developed a course at American University with a colleague called Women in Organizational Leadership. Over the past three years, we have learned all we can about challenges that women leaders face. Items such as ambition, pay, childcare and microaggressions are big issues.
Women have to think about a lot of issues in the workplace (remember America Ferrar’s monologue in Barbie), and I feel that every time I learn about an issue, there are many sides of it that pop up, and I read everything I can about it. The more I learn, the more issues are uncovered.
I am obsessed with issues related to women in the workplace — the double bind, work/home responsibilities. negotiation, men as allies, the scarcity model — and I love to explore each issue and talk with the wonderful women in my life and hold panels, workshops and events to make meaningful change.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about EmpowHERed?
EmpowHERed is led by Susan Apgood and Anjali Varma, who are Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advisors specializing in women’s leadership and gender equality.
EmpowHERed’s mission is to increase awareness of gender equality and develop and elevate women leaders across all industries. EmpowHERed leads events, programming, training, coaching, and community focused on advancing women and provides services targeted toward corporations, women leaders in the workplace, and women business owners. Offerings include corporate training workshops and group coaching programs as well as events and workshops targeted toward women leaders and women business owners.
At American University’s Kogod School of Business, where Susan and Anjali are both professors, they designed and lead the award winning course Women In Organization Leadership. Both are entrepreneurs, seasoned marketers, and business coaches who specialize in women’s leadership.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
When I was about six or seven years old, my best friend and I created a neighborhood magazine and worked hard to get content on neighborhood news, took and drew pictures, and had my dad make hundreds of copies of the newsletter.
Then, we spent hours and hours coloring them individually before walking around selling each for 25 cents. We lived in such an idyllic neighborhood in New Jersey, and as soon as we made enough money to buy ice cream at our local pool, we did. I look back fondly on this first of many business ventures I have been a part of.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.empowheredleaders.com/
- Instagram: @susanmapgood
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susan.apgood
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanapgood/
Image Credits
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