Sue Southon

Sue spent much of her career assisting distressed communities to prepare for and respond to economic and natural disasters. She helps affected groups by building capacity and identifying strategies for sustaining long-term recovery.

She participated in the management of Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) technical assistance engagements for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in New Jersey and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since 2017, Sue has participated in and presented at HUD’s National CDBG-DR Problems Solving Clinic. She also leads webinars and workshops on CDBG-DR and disaster recovery-related economic development for HUD and the International Economic Development Council. She’s also participated in the development of HUD’s CDBG-DR Launch Toolkit and HUD’s Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Toolkit for a continuum of care providers.

Sue is recognized as a subject matter expert in redevelopment, program design, policies, procedures, document templates and checklists, and provision of technical assistance with regulatory issues. Her past projects include major disaster recovery initiatives in Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and South Carolina. During these efforts, she helped develop housing recovery programs, mitigation projects, organizational structures, staffing projections, financial management, and reporting systems.

Sue joined our team in 2012 as a senior technical specialist and is responsible for leading teams and providing technical assistance to HUD grantees nationwide. On top of work with CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT, her assignments involve NSP and HOME policies, procedures, and project implementation support.

Earlier in her career, Sue was responsible for comprehensive strategic planning in distressed communities with the Michigan Department of Commerce. She also served as the Senior Director of business development for Michigan First—the state’s public-private business attraction and marketing organization.

Throughout the ‘80s, she was the executive director of the Independent Business Research Office of Michigan. She authored federal, state, and foundation grants, resulting in awards in excess of $55 million. Sue served as a trainer for major institutes like the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and Urban Land Institute Advisory Services panels.

Southon received the fellow member designation from IEDC for significant contributions to the profession.