An internationally-known speaker and workshop leader, Susan Zimmermann is coauthor of educational bestsellers 7 Keys to Comprehension (2003) and Mosaic of Thought (1997, new edition 2007). She co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition, an organization that has spearheaded ground-breaking comprehension work. During her ten years there, she initiated numerous programs to improve the quality of public schools, including the Reading Project, which has been implemented in more than one hundred schools and provides the examples in 7 Keys and Mosaic of Thought.

Susan is also the author of Keeping Katherine (2005); Writing to Heal the Soul (2002), winner of the Colorado Book Award; and Grief Dancers (1996), finalist for the Colorado Book Award and winner of the Exceptional Parent symbol of excellence for its "profound contribution to human understanding and dignity."
These wise and inspiring books grew out of Susan’s personal experience of raising her profoundly handicapped daughter Katherine, who developed normally for her first year, but then experienced a devastating neurological disorder (Rett syndrome) that left her unable to walk, talk or feed herself.

Currently a full-time speaker and writer, Susan has given hundreds of workshops, keynotes, and summer institutes in over 40 states, throughout Canada, and in Mexico on ways to deepen reading and writing experiences for adults and children.

A lover of the wilderness and believer in the transformative power of the outdoors, she has been a trustee of the Colorado Outward Bound School and served as the board chair of The Women’s Wilderness Institute, an organization that provides wilderness learning experiences for adolescent girls and women. Susan is a graduate of Yale Law School and mother of four. She lives in the foothills west of Denver with her husband, Paul Phillips.