Community Check-In: Susan Andersen’s Local Story

Introducing Susan 

For today’s Community Check-In, we’re talking with Susan Andersen–an active local Montclair community member–who is running for Councilor-at-Large this year. The Election is May 14th.

Susan lived in South Korea until she was four, then grew up and went to college in Pennsylvania. She has called Montclair her home for the past 15 years when she moved here to start her family.  

“I ended up in Montclair because I went to law school at Rutgers Newark,” Andersen explained. “And that's when I first knew about Montclair. My friends and I would hang out here sometime during the weekends and go to the movies at the Claridge.”

Susan lived in New York City after law school. When it was time to choose where she wanted to raise her family, Susan had to decide if New York City was where she wanted to be. 

“Being in a diverse environment was very important to me, personally, and having cultural institutions and downtown life too. Those were all things that mattered and that's when I settled in Montclair back in 2009.”

Susan used her law degree to work in research administration. She wanted a career that would allow her to use her education without directly practicing law.

“What I do now is I help develop policies and procedures and figure out how to help get the get information about the policies and procedures out to the people who need to follow them and make sure that they can be properly implemented.”

Montclair’s Political Scene 

I was introduced to Susan because of her most recent connection to Montclair. 

Susan is running for Councilor-at-Large, which will be her first step into Montclair's political scene.

Montclair is a Council-Manager Government comprising the Mayor and six council people. There is one councilor for each of Montclair’s four wards, then two at-large members who speak for the entire community. 

“I decided to ultimately run for Councilor-at-Large, rather than representing just my ward.”

We talked about how this new experience feels for Susan. She’s been immersed in Montclair since moving here but has never entered the town’s political side.

“It feels a little daunting because it's new,” she said. “I've been watching and attending council meetings over the last three years, so it's not a completely unfamiliar environment.”

Susan explained that running for Town Council allows her to contribute to the town’s growth in a new way.

“I'm also actually very excited because I'm getting to learn a lot about some of the inner workings of what I see around me and how government works or should work. So, it's exciting.”

Diving into Volunteer Work

Before running for Councilor-at-Large, Susan volunteered in Montclair for over a decade. She works with many organizations, all spread between different parts of Montclair.  

“My interest in serving the community started back in high school because every student was required to complete volunteer service for graduation,” she told me. “That was the thing that really sparked my interest in the wider world and trying to learn about other communities.”

Her love for volunteering led her to get involved with Toni’s Kitchen in 2010. This was Susan’s introduction to community work in her new town.

“When I moved to Montclair,” she said, “I was looking for something that I could do to have a more direct impact on people, and that's how I found Toni's kitchen. I started volunteering with them back in 2010.”

Susan has been working with Toni’s Kitchen for almost as long as she’s lived in Montclair. She resonated with the kitchen’s goals and values.

“It was a soup kitchen known for treating guests with dignity and connecting them with other services.”

She serves on their Advisory Community, and in 2021 during The Pandemic, she started organizing town food drives. 

“We came up with this idea of having people sign up to donate food, and then getting some volunteer drivers to go to homes and pick up the donations and bring them back,” she said.

Toni’s Kitchen was just the beginning of Susan’s involvement in the town. She volunteered at Montclair schools when her late daughter was in Elementary school. She said the work was rewarding, especially because she loved the Montclair school system. 

Susan serves on the Vestry at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church where she works to create a welcoming environment for new and current congregation members.

One of her recent volunteer projects is her involvement in the Asian American and Pacific Islanders of Montclair organization. AAPI was formed from a Facebook group in 2021 during Covid. 

“It was a group that sort of formed through a Facebook page for Asian American people in this area and nationally who were experiencing hate and bias incidents,” she explained. “Now it's a thriving nonprofit, and I've been on the board of that organization since the end of 2022.”

AAPI introduced Susan to a different part of Montclair and allowed her to be involved in a way she hadn’t before. 

“What I really like about this group is the desire to work in coalition with other marginalized communities because we have things in common and we might have some common goals,” Andersen explained. “The best way to try to move forward and make progress on the things we all care about is by working together.“

I asked Susan if AAPI helped her feel more in touch with Montclair. She told me that the group made her realize how many more Asian people were in Montclair. 

“It definitely does make me feel more community,” she said. “I already had an awareness of what it means for myself to be Asian American in this country, but I really think that this organization has allowed people to come together and learn how to be proud to share our cultural heritage.” 

The organization also works to encourage Asian American people to become more involved through voter and civic engagement. 

I enjoyed talking with Susan because of how clearly she loves Montclair.

“I love Montclair,” she said. “It has changed a lot throughout the years, and there are a lot of issues to sort of tackle as a town, and it's probably going to be challenging, but I feel really good about this town. I don't think that I could live anywhere else at this moment in my life.”

If you’re in Montclair, you can vote for Councilor-at-Large on May 24th, and check out Susan’s Campaign website to see if her views align with yours.

Thank you all for reading another Community Check-In! I’ve really loved writing these and getting to meet new people!

I’ll be traveling for April (and maybe May), so there will be a pause in Community Check-Ins. But don’t worry!! I’ll be posting more travel content like diary entries, travel articles, and more! Sign up for my email list to see when my next blog is posted.