Susanna Wickham is a 25-year veteran of Chicago’s civic community. She is the president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago, the city’s largest and longest-serving organization dedicated to providing safe spaces for Chicago’s kids and teens, serving 15,000 youth each year.
She previously served as CEO of PAWS Chicago, one of the country’s largest animal welfare organizations, during an era of transformative growth in resources, impact and visibility. Prior to her nonprofit career, she spent 20 years in Chicago media, most recently as the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Chicago magazine; after her first year at the helm, the magazine was nominated for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Known as a community-builder with entrepreneurial drive, she previously created and launched Splash magazine for the Chicago Sun-Times and Michigan Avenue magazine. In the early 2000s, she launched her media career writing “Susanna’s Night Out,” a nightlife column in the Chicago Sun-Times, and was host of a weekend talk show on WCKG-FM. She started her career working at advertising and PR agencies on national and local consumer brand campaigns.
She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and is married to Chris Wickham, a private jet pilot and corporate and family flight department manager. They live in downtown Chicago with their dogs Aviana and Gus.