Suzy served for 25 years as a Deputy County Attorney in Missoula, Montana, where she focused primarily on prosecuting gender-based violence and child abuse. She helped establish Missoula’s child abuse multidisciplinary team and coordinated community response to gender-based violence. She has supervised interns, mentored new prosecutors, taught Trial Practice as an adjunct instructor at the University of Montana School of Law, testified before legislative committees, and provided training locally, regionally, and nationally.
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into the response to sexual assault by the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, Missoula Police Department, and the University of Montana. Following a settlement, Suzy was appointed the first Lead Attorney of the newly- created Special Victims Unit. She helped develop reforms that ultimately made Missoula a national model, including producing a comprehensive sexual assault prosecution manual with the Montana Attorney General’s Office and authoring a new statutory definition of consent adopted by the Montana Legislature in 2017. She also served as the prosecutor representative on the Montana Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission from 2010 to 2023.
Suzy grew up in Arlington, Virginia. She graduated from Hampshire College in 1991 and earned her J.D. from the University of Montana School of Law in 1996. Before joining the Missoula County Attorney’s Office in 1999, she worked as a staff attorney at the National District Attorneys Association’s National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse.
Now retired from the courtroom, Suzy is passionate about her second act as a special deputy county attorney, trainer and consultant helping criminal justice agencies implement trauma-informed, victim-centered practices, and supporter of survivor-led initiatives. She recently wrote the foreword to Making Space for the Light: Documenting the Violence that Shapes the Life of Women and Girls, an anthology of survivor stories, and is a collaborator on several upcoming What Were You Wearing? exhibits inspired by Mary Simmerling’s poem What I Was Wearing, which confronts the rape myths and victim-blaming attitudes so prevalent in our society.