Susan Lucci
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
Intelligent, interesting, personable, and multi-talented (and there are many more words to describe her!), Susan Lucci is somewhat like an artichoke—with lots of layers that belie her modest exterior. And knitted into the fabric of her interesting life has been education—her wanting to achieve amazing educational goals.
Susan was born in Tampa, Fla., and her high school years were filled with tennis, singing in a chorus, and being an alternate in a dance squad. A lover of horses, she also had her own horse. Her father worked at Motorola, and her mother was a stay-at-home mother.
Susan initially opted not to attend college but started working instead. She married and had a son, and the family moved to San Diego where she attended Grossmont College and then San Diego State College. After seven years, she divorced and moved with her son back to Florida where her parents would provide a support system for her.
Susan obtained a job as a cost accountant with an electrical contractor who was constructing a hospital. She was then hired as an accounting manager at a hospital where she was in charge of payroll and accounts payable, a job that she held for 13 years.
During this time, Susan obtained a two-year associate degree in business management from Hillsborough College, followed by a medical records degree in health sciences from St. Petersburg College.
Eventually, her son moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and she visited him on several occasions. Then she decided to complete her formal education by obtaining a bachelor’s degree in health information management from the University of Cincinnati.
She met her husband Bob in 1985 and was married in 1989. His careers took them to Wyoming and to Colorado, and because Susan worked from a home office, moving was an adventure she enjoyed. Over the years, she obtained different jobs, plus many certifications and achievements, including:
• Being certified in health care privacy and security,
• Working in health care consulting,
• Being a privacy and security officer at a major health care organization,
• Becoming certified in Healthcare Privacy and Security (CHPS),
• Becoming certified as a Healthcare Documentation Specialist (CHDS), and
• Becoming a Fellow of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). Susan achieved a Lifetime Achievement Award from the AHDI in 2018.
• She also was a member of Toastmasters for eight years.
Lifelong learning is Susan’s passion and, in her own words, “When you stop learning, you lose connections with things that really matter.”
When asked who inspired her to achieve the goals in her life, Susan said that her maternal grandmother told her, “You can do anything you put your mind to.”
Susan is in the SaddleBrooke One Niners Golf League, serves on the SaddleBrooke One Golf Committee, is the Unit 12 representative, serves on the Unit 12 Social Committee, takes tai chi, and is learning how to play Mah Jongg. She will also chair the Lady Niners’ 2026 Woman’s Invitational. Susan loves to cook and play billiards.
Besides her son Austin, Susan is stepmother to two amazing grown women, Carson and Kris, and she has four grandchildren.