Before retiring, Susie had a career in management consulting specializing in organization design and leadership development. Her consulting work started at the American Productivity and Quality Center in Houston, Texas, after which she founded her own firm, Phillips and Associates, based in Eugene and later in Portland, Oregon. Her work included both short-term interventions and long-term, large-scale organizational change projects in many sectors and industries including software, high technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, timber, wood products, paper, utilities, government, higher education, and health care. She also performed paid and pro bono work for nonprofits.

Susie’s volunteer leadership for Stanford GSB began in 1971-72 with her position as vice president of the student body and president of the student senate. While in the MBA program, together with the admissions director and two other women classmates, she advocated for increasing the percentage of women MBA students at Stanford and other elite business schools through consultations with the national Graduate Business Admissions Council and made recruiting presentations on the campuses of top colleges. As an alumna, she served multiple years as a board member of the Oregon Chapter of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association and as chapter board president. She returns to the GSB for reunion events and served as an alumni volunteer for the annual day-long MBA Leadership Challenge.

Grateful for the financial support she received as the recipient of the Gilbreth Scholarship, Susie has also been active in GSB fundraising. She co-chaired a record-breaking 20th reunion campaign for the MBA Class of 1972. She currently serves as a class agent and in May 2014 co-hosted an innovative mini-reunion that reconnected classmates with one another and with the new mission, curriculum, and campus. She has also been an active alumna and volunteer leader for the university through service on the Stanford Alumni Association Board of Directors; the alumnae board of Cap and Gown, Stanford’s academic and leadership honor society for women; and reunion campaign committees for the undergraduate Class of 1970.

Susie’s husband, David Rumker, is an executive with Campbell Global, a timberland investment management company. Their daughter, Laurie Rumker, is pursuing a BA in human biology and MS in biomedical informatics at Stanford while aiming for an MD/PhD program.