Susan Evangelista is the Founder of Roots of Health and previously served as the organization’s Director of Youth. Prior to the founding of Roots of Health, Susan worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and went on to teach at the Ateneo de Manila University for 30 years. While a faculty member at Ateneo, she also worked in Nigeria’s University of Maiduguri, in a Burmese Refugee Camp in Thailand, in Cambodia’s Royal University of Phnom Penh, and in Osaka Gaidai, Japan. She has published academic books and articles, as well as creative pieces – both fiction and nonfiction – and handled various administrational jobs in the university, notably Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies. She also worked with ACELT, an outreach organization that conducts teacher training all over the Philippines.

In 2000 Susan retired from Ateneo and moved to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, where she is currently a consultant at Palawan State University. Susan is also adjunct faculty with the SAIDI foundation in Manila and Secretary of the Board of Bahatala, a local orthopedic rehabilitation NGO, funded by the British Palawan Trust in England and the international Christian Blind Mission.

Susan received her Bachelors degree from Swarthmore College, her Master of Applied Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, her Master of Asian Studies from the University of the Philippines, and her Doctor of Philosophy in Philippine Studies from the University of the Philippines.