Staff Profile of the Month

Staff member brings creativity to work

By Ashley Wiggin

Susan Lee-Pullen comes to work each day as assistant to the chair, FCN, with a unique perspective at her disposal. A small business owner and entrepreneur, Susan has learned to integrate her work inside of the school to her life outside. Susan recently completed training to be a life coach, where she works with people seeking assistance in how to better manage their busy lives, putting to use many of the skills she developed each day in her job at the School of Nursing. Also a jewelry designer and small-business owner, Susan knows and understands the challenges that face people with many roles. 

“Everything I’ve learned about goal-setting, time management,

and focusing in my training has proved valuable here at work, and the interpersonal skills have also been helpful in working with other personalities, other work styles here at the UW,” she said.

Susan grew up on Mercer Island and went on to graduate from Western Washington University in 1994 with a degree in art, psychology and symbols. After spending eight years working for a beading company in Seattle, where she helped to publish three books on beading practices, Susan started her own jewelry business in 1994.

“What I love about jewelry is that it can be with us every day and can carry with it deep personal significance—such as a wedding ring or a pin your mother wore,” she said. “It can be very meaningful to the owner.”

While developing her jewelry business, Susan continued to explore an interest in how creative expression contributes to self-knowledge. She simultaneously began working as a program coordinator in FCN in 2003, where she learned to juggle multiple projects at once and balance the many demands of her multiple jobs. This sparked an interest in helping people through a coaching program designed to support people in living more satisfying lives. Susan completed a training program through Erickson College, an International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited program in solution-focused coaching. She simultaneously completed a coach training program specifically for helping people reconnect with and enjoy their creativity.

“What appealed to me about life coaching is that it focuses on people’s strengths and the things that they do well,” she said. “The goal is to help people to find their own solutions.”

While juggling her role as an entrepreneur and staff member at the School, Susan finds that the skills she has learned in her outside jobs have been an important part of her success.

“Many of the things I have in my “toolkit” have been important components to my job here,” she said. “There have been many opportunities for me to put my skills to good use.”

She sells her jewelry at galleries and street fairs in Seattle and around the Puget Sound region. Susan and her husband live in Maple Leaf.

Photo by Jaime Hooper