EMMY award-winning editor, international aid worker, author and public speaker. Founder of Women’s Center’s International, a non-profit that creates resource centers for women affected by conflict and poverty. Author of three books, many short stories, and over 150 essays.
Susan’s why ↓ Full bio ↓
WHY I'M MAKING THIS FILMSusan’s why
I grew up in a white suburb of Detroit. Motown provided the sound tracks of my high school years.
I did not know any black people until I moved to California in the mid-70s to work in television. It was hard to find a black face in a sea of white ones until the 90’s. I left the business just as news anchors and crews of different colors were arriving. The move ushered in the peak period of my working life.
After the initial thrill of entering the humanitarian aid and development business, I saw pretty much every one of my sacred cows slaughtered.
It was more satisfying to be an outlier working with small organizations based in Africa. I was the color of the minority colonizer but intent on disrupting the classist, male-dominated, ‘Global North’ approaches. I learned humility and an appreciation of the absurd from my African colleagues and friends.
Over time I understood something of the pain, horror, and grief that threads through the lives of black human beings. An apology hardly covers the enormity of insults endured Living While Black. But I’m not looking to shoulder shame and guilt. I’m seeking the way to connect as human beings. We’re sure to be better that way.
I want to see policies and actions that bring justice, a fair shot for everyone at the promise that could be American prosperity. Reparations are a way to achieve this.
The very old financial debt to descendants of slaves is the responsibility of the United States government. Our purported representatives have been there every generation, never pressed to change policies through times of slavery, Jim Crow, Massacres, and Redlining. Now in the time of mass Incarceration and systemic ‘normalized’ discrimination, we have a duty to turn the tide. I want to help that process.
The Invoice is how I contribute. How about you?
BIO
Susan Burgess-Lent took role of the Executive Producer for THE INVOICE because she has honed all the managerial skills needed for its success. She believes settling the debt with Black Americans is one of the most consequential issues of her life and a defining choice for America’s future.
She is a novelist, essayist, and veteran international aid worker whose thirty-year career spans many international programs and advocacy for women in conflict zones.
She was the founder of Women’s Centers International, a non-profit that created safe resource spaces for women affected by war and poverty. She previously worked for the American Red Cross during the Rwanda genocide, and served as Program Director for the Darfur Peace and Development Organization, assisting the recovery of primary schools in Darfur and creating the first two Women’s Centers in Sudan.
Her professional life also included an Emmy-Award-winning stint in television journalism as a news editor with NBC, CBS, Voice of America, and other broadcasters.
She served for two years on the Alameda Country (CA) Commission on the Status of Women, and coordinates a local community garden in Oakland.
Susan has authored the novel When All the Girls Stopped Singing (2026), the memoir Trouble Ahead: Dangerous Missions with Desperate People (2019) and the novel In the Borderlands (2000). She writes womanist commentary on Substack and blogs at SusanBurgessLent.com
She lives with her family in Oakland, California and is an avid gardener.
The work so far
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