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SCV Education Foundation, College of the Canyons, Association of Women Entrepreneurs, Castaic Lake Water
Agency, HMNH, SCV Jaycees, First Lego League Robotics, City of Santa Clarita
Organizational Impact: Sue can be counted on for innovative ideas and sharing connections to help Scouts to
raise funds and serve kids. She is a passionate “cheer-leader”, emphatically telling anyone who will listen that
Scouts can save lives, help single moms find leadership for their sons, and keep an aimless kid off the streets,
and steer him to outdoor fun, adventure, learning, and companionship. She will throw the search dog in the car,
head off to a troop meeting, teach the kids about Search & Rescue, then let the kids have pictures taken with the
dog. Sue’s contributions beyond the direct impact on Scouting relates to the search dog. While Sue works full
time, she gets up in the middle of the night, answers her pager, puts on her Sheriff’s uniform, radios some sher-
iff colleague in Los Angeles, and drives off for hours into the dark with the dog to find lost Alzheimer’s patients
or depressed, suicidal runaways.
Biography: Sue has been a part of the SCV business and nonprofit community for more than a decade with
NewMarket Careers, and now brings her Career Development skills to the Hart School District to assist youth in
productively entering the workforce. As a volunteer, she has mentored and conducted presentations for area stu-
dents, having participated in developing career curriculum for VIA Connect 2 Success that began with the SCV
School & Business Alliance and Junior Achievement, and as a speaker for COC Worksource. Sue now serves
the Child & Family Center having joined the board through the recent merger with the Domestic Violence
Center, with particular concern for prevention of violence through education and empowerment of women and
men, girls and boys. Sue helped launch Circle of Hope support services for those suffering with prostate cancer,
as her husband Bruce died of this in 2008, and she still loves to dance since volunteering in Dancing With Our
Stars. Her Eagle Scout son, Ransom, is now senior district director for Boy Scouts of America, having received
a Master’s degree from CalArts. Sue has been a Den mother, Cubmaster, merit badge counselor, committee
member and fundraiser for Scouts. She is a past secretary of Newhall Trail Riders, and was an Illinois 4H honor
member. Her family also includes husband (of four months) Jerry Buckley of College of the Canyons, grandson
Alexander, and Doberman “Nüdel” who is deployed with Sue as a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
and Cal-Emergency Management Association Search (SAR) dog.

Susann Rizzo
Retired, Community Volunteer
Nominated by Santa Clarita Organization for

Planning and the Environment (SCOPE)
SCOPE (15 years)
• Board
• Fundraising
UU Social Justice committee (5 years)
Food Pantry (5 years)
Alternative to Violence Program (5 years)
• Facilitator
• Principal liaison
Organizational Impact: Susann has donated her organizing skills to our group for many years. She is a “take
charge” self-starter that always brings creative ideas to the table. With these skills she has helped to organize
many SCOPE outreach events over the last decade, including our most recent 30th anniversary event held on
Nov. 5. She donated hundreds of hours of her time, held meetings at her house, suggested speakers, organized
silent auction gifts and door prizes, and then worked on the ticket table at the event itself in spite of not feeling
well. Her volunteer work with the Alternative to Violence program is also an asset at meetings in ensuring that
discussion of issues remains civil, allowing everyone to hear one another and discuss various viewpoints. As a
member of the Alternative to Violence Program, she spends two and a half days each month in the prison help-
ing inmates find connections and commonalities with others in a non-violent manner. She describes the work as
very intense, but also very rewarding. Started in 1975, the AVP Program began with the realization that prisoner