Susan G. King, M.S.

Nassau County Department of Health

Mineola, NY, 11501

Biography

Susan G. King currently serves as Director of Environmental Health for the County of Nassau, New York.  She directs a staff of 135 environmental health professionals who serve a suburban population on Long Island of nearly 1.4 million people adjacent to New York City with a budget of over eight million dollars.  Sue has been with the Nassau County Health Department since 1976, starting in the Marine Ecology Lab, supervising in the Bureau of Land Resources Management and then assuming the position of Assistant to the Director of Environmental Health and Deputy Director prior to her current assignment.

Sue has been a member of the National Environmental Health Association and is Vice Chair of the New York State Conference of Environmental Health Directors.  Besides her duties in environmental health, Sue serves on the Executive Committee for Geographic Information Systems in the County and is actively involved in the day-to-day planning of Emergency Response.

Sue holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Earth Sciences from Adelphi University.  She lives in Wantagh, NY where she has been an active participant in a number of community affairs. 

Leadership Development Opportunities

Besides the obvious benefit of being able to share the work of my agency, EPHLI has enabled me to come in close contact with other environmental health professionals whose efforts to overcome real world problems and challenges have become an inspiration to me.  I believe I am learning far more from EPHLI than I am contributing to it, and in doing so I am firming up the foundation upon which I have built my career.  In working on my project, I have learned to extend my reach by partnering with local key stakeholders to protect public health.  Systems thinking has put into context the processes used to define and resolve a conflict and has clarified for me the need to be more open minded, look for the long term solution and create paths to success (Don't say "No!", ask "How?").  I have become acutely aware of the different roles played by leaders and managers and encourage my subordinate staff to share and develop new ideas.  EPHLI has helped me to realize that while we are all faced with similar obstacles, such as budget and personnel constraints, bureaucratic red tape and political decision making, we all manage to find creative and effective ways to deal with them.  It is heartening to know that we are truly "all in this together!"