About

In her teens and twenties she trained horses and dogs.

A chance encounter with an unwanted macaw led to multiple parrot rescues, and a trip to the Hudson Valley Raptor Center sparked her love of wild birds.

After 11 years at the raptor center she founded Flyaway, Inc., an all-species home-based wild bird rehab non-profit. She chronicled the tumultuous years of rehabbing and raising her children in the best-selling memoir “Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings.”

She wrote articles, columns, and blogs, as well as two more books about birds, their environment, and the people who save them. She has been profiled by The New York Times, The Journal-News, Hudson Valley Magazine, Dot Earth, Chronogram, and Al Jazeera.

Suzie was the first board president of Raptor Rescue and Research, the American sister non-profit to the Delhi wildlife group portrayed in the Academy Award-nominated documentary All That Breathes. Here she conducts a post-screening interview with one of the brothers in Delhi via zoom. 

In 2025 she founded the NYSWRC-Pace Alliance, which leverages rehabilitators, advocates, and policymakers to advance and improve New York State wildlife protection and care.

Suzie continues to rescue and transport injured wild birds, and she speaks at conferences as well as libraries, schools and nature groups.