A national leader in the fight for effective sexuality education and adolescent pregnancy prevention, Susan N. Wilson, MSEd is a former executive coordinator of Answer. In that position for 23 years, she successfully led the national organization in its mission to provide and promote comprehensive sexuality education to young people and the adults who teach them. Answer, formerly the Network for Family Life, is part of the Center for Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. Ms. Wilson now serves as its Senior Advisor.
At Answer, Ms. Wilson spearheaded the creation of its nationally recognized Sexuality Education Training Initiative, which provides more than 5,000 professionals annually with the tools they need to teach comprehensive sexuality education. She also led the development of Answer’s renowned, Webby award-honored Sex, Etc. magazine and website, written by teens, for teens, on sexuality education issues.
A widely recognized advocate for comprehensive sexuality education, Ms. Wilson writes about the intersection of sexuality, politics, pop culture and education on her blog “Sex Matters†for New Jersey Newsroom. She has also written about sexuality education for Answer’s blog “Sex Ed, Honestly.â€
Ms. Wilson has served on the New Jersey State Board of Education, where she was an architect of a statewide policy requiring sexuality education in K-12 public schools. She has received numerous honors and awards for her work from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, Advocates for Youth, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey Policy Perspectives, and Planned Parenthood Association of the Mercer Area, among others.
Wilson completed a four-year term on the New Jersey’s Advisory Council on Adolescent Pregnancy, serving as its first chair. She also served on the Advisory Panel of Johnson & Johnson’s National Urban Adolescent Pregnancy Initiative and the Task Force for State and Local Coalitions of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. She recently completed six years of service as a board member and chair of New Jersey Policy Perspectives and completed a six-year term on the board of trustees and secretary of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, where she co-chaired its Fund for Women and Girls.
A graduate of Vassar College, Wilson received a Master of Science in Education degree in education supervision and administration from Bank Street College and taught reading in public schools in New York and Washington, D.C. She is also a former education reporter for Life magazine. She has authored many articles on sexuality education and appeared on numerous radio and television shows.