After Laurel, Sue earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Denison University and set off to teach science, first at the Kingswood School Cranbrook in Michigan and then at the New Jersey’s Newark Academy (NA) before transitioning into leadership as NA’s Middle School Director. In 1990 she took a position as the Director of the Middle School at Kent Place School, an all-girl’s school, where she would spend the next 27 years, 18 of them as Head of School, immersed in “championing students’ strengths, voice and leadership,” and putting what she learned in her master’s in educational leadership from Columbia University Teachers College into practice. At Kent Place, she oversaw two multimillion dollar capital campaigns that transformed the Upper and Middle Schools and she was, as a former Board Chair attests, “instrumental in launching the Ethics Institute, which partnered with The Hastings Institute-–the first of its kind in New Jersey.”

Deeply respected and long considered a profoundly wise and self-effacing sounding board among her head of school colleagues across the country, Sue served as President of The Heads Network and the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools and on the boards of the National Coalition of Girls’ School, the Headmistresses Association of the East (now called The 1911 Group), Delbarton School, as well as Laurel School. In 2017 she “retired” from Kent Place School to focus on search work and educational leadership coaching, but the opportunity to return to the helm of another girls’ school was too tempting and she accepted the call to head National Cathedral between a departing long-term head and a future head of school. Little did she know that just months into her tenure, she would need to guide the school through a global pandemic while advancing a strategic plan and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Next year, she will do what she has always done-–develop genuine connections with everyone in the school community—when she serves as the interim Head of School for Maret School, which in its announcement about embarking on a national search describes Sue as “the right leader for this moment.”

The impact of her unwavering dedication to the mission of all-girls education can be measured by the thousands of students who have witnessed her calm, consistent and compassionate leadership and who have benefited from her unbounded confidence in their abilities. The Laurel School Alumnae Association is honored to bestow its 2026 Distinguished Alumna Award on Susan Collins Bosland, Class of 1976.