Susan Traiman
Director, Public Policy, Business Roundtable, Washington DC

Susan Traiman is Director of Public Policy at Business Roundtable and manages the Education, Innovation and Workforce Initiative.  She oversees the Roundtable's activities for chief executive officers of leading corporations interested in improving U.S. education performance and workforce competitiveness and sustaining U.S. scientific and technological leadership.  Recently cited as "the most influential chief executive lobbying group in the U.S." by the Financial Times, Business Roundtable members are at the forefront of public policy, advocating for a vigorous, dynamic global economy.

Ms. Traiman leads several coalitions, including the Tapping America’s Potential (TAP) Coalition of national business groups that advocates for federal investments in K-20 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and basic research in the physical sciences and engineering.  The TAP Coalition’s goal is to increase the annual number of U.S. graduates with STEM bachelor’s degrees to 400,000 by 2015.  She also led the Education Excellence Partnership’s Ad Council campaign on raising standards in America’s schools. 

Prior to joining the Business Roundtable, Ms. Traiman was Education Policies Studies Director at the National Governors Association (NGA) where she coordinated assistance to governors in developing and implementing systemic education reform strategies.  At the NGA, she was involved in the 1989 National Education Summit in Charlottesville, Virginia and the subsequent development of National Education Goals.  Ms. Traiman was a senior associate with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement and served on the staff of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, contributing to the development of its landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk.

Ms. Traiman came to Washington, D.C. from New Jersey where she was a teacher and a consultant at a regional service center of the New Jersey Department of Education.  She has a B.A. in American Civilization and M.S. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.