Susannah Delano has achieved important wins on the frontlines of California’s movements for gender equity, racial justice, and health care access for over 20 years.
Susannah has served as Executive Director of Close the Gap (CTG) since January, 2018. During her tenure driving this groundbreaking campaign for gender parity, the California State Legislature has rebounded from a 20-year representation low of 26 women, to an all-time high of 50 women and counting. Today, California more than doubles the national average for the percentage of women of color serving in its state house. In 2023 and 2024, Susannah was named to Capitol Weekly’s “Top 100” most influential figures in state politics, a first for the many organizations working to promote women in office.
Susannah’s leadership is rooted in her early experience bargaining groundbreaking contracts and defeating proposed budget cuts alongside SEIU homecare workers from 2002-2010. From 2010-2017 Susannah led Planned Parenthood Northern California’s advocacy and electoral work, mobilizing to deliver key votes that expanded access to reproductive health care during a time of reinvigorated national assault.
A graduate of Occidental College, Susannah is based in Vallejo, California with her artist husband, her 17 year-old, and their two Zoom-friendly cats (Quinto and Ruth Bader Ginsburg).
