Susan Mask, a lawyer, artist and consultant, is an advocate for diversity, eliminating racism and homelessness, and for helping young women study STEM subjects with the hopes of creating more options for their futures. Mask joined the board of the YWCA when she was working at Washington Mutual — later JPMorgan Chase. She joined the board of Seattle Children’s Hospital 10 years ago and now chairs the board. Mask said she is particularly passionate about the organization’s new Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, Seattle Children’s only primary care facility and serves traditionally underserved populations. It is breaking ground on a new location in September. She sits on four boards.
She is one of eight people who will be recognized by the Puget Sound Business Journal at the third annual Director of the Year Gala on Sept. 12 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle.
How does the state of the health care industry affect how you navigate your role as a member of the Seattle Children’s board? I am keenly aware that the need for uncompensated care grows significantly every year. Children should be taken care of better. But unfortunately, health care is in free fall. It is one of the greatest — if not the greatest — sources of bankruptcy in the U.S. Unpaid medical bills are crushing the economy and families. We need to find a solution for health disparities and provide health equity. To achieve health equity, we have to look at race and social justice.
Take us into the room for your first Seattle Children's board meeting. I was awed by the other trustees. Health care was a new area for me. I knew I would have to spend a lot of time listening to understand the breadth of the issues and the best way to tackle them. Taking the time to listen and understand my role as trustee was key.
What is a lesson from that role that you still use? Listen more, talk less and foster the ability to stay mission-focused and ask key questions.
What should every board member’s No. 1 objective be and why? Oversight is the chief role of a trustee. But that oversight must be informed by generative conversations that ask, why are we doing this. What if we do that? Stretch the boundaries and dare to think more broadly. As a trustee, you must promote transparency and build trust with management but also hold them accountable. We are lucky to have our very capable CEO, a diverse management staff that he’s put in place and wicked-smart trustees who care passionately about the work.
What is one thing you wish you knew before joining your first board? How hard it is to drive change and how long it takes to realize it.
What is the best advice you’ve received as a board member? Read carefully. Listen carefully. Foster transparency.
What are the best strategies to guide and grow a company/organization? Be bold. Don’t be afraid to ask why, and why not. And how this initiative is tied to our mission.
Looking back over the last year of your board work, what moment are you most proud of? There have been several having to do with diversity and change. I'm most proud of the culture of diversity that has taken hold because it is more entrenched than before and likely to lead to long term change for the better.
Why has boardroom diversity been so slow to develop? Usually, diversity is adopted by an organization as a “program.” It is treated as a thing to check off and be done. That doesn’t work. Diversity is a process and it — like most things cultural — has starts and fits and starts. What companies misunderstand is that diversity doesn’t just happen one day and you’re done and good forever. It is a process and it starts from the top — from the Board and the CEO. We have to have board members who believe that diversity matters. It does. They drive the work and the mission.
Current boards
- YWCA Seattle/King/Snohomish
- Greater Seattle Chapter of The Links, Incorporated
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Susan Mask
Residence: Mount Baker neighborhood
Education: Bachelor's degree from City College of the City University of New York; JD from New York University School of Law
Family: Husband, WH "Joe" Knight; two grown children, Michael and Lauren
