Susan is a nationally board-certified educational therapist whose career began teaching homeless children in New York City to read. While working in Hell’s Kitchen and the South Bronx, she helped secure grants for Women in Need, Inc., funding a library and parent workshops for families in shelter.

Before her teaching career, Micari made history as a civil rights activist. With sponsorship from the National Organization for Women, she fought a landmark sexual harassment case in 1983—one of the first to define and name sexual harassment as an illegal act. The case, which challenged the coercion of adult students by a New York City acting teacher, helped lead to Mayor Ed Koch’s decision to outlaw sexual harassment in all city government agencies. Despite the personal risks and threats faced by the women who brought it forward, the case established a vital precedent: the right of women to be safe from harassment and predatory behavior.

Today, Micari continues to combine her activism and educational practice, advocating for equity, safety, and opportunity in every community she serves. She also teaches Afghan women who have been deprived of an education to speak, read, and write English—until such time as the Taliban restores the basic right of all women to an education.