She studies the natural carbon cycle and human impacts on the soil environment and serves as a co-PI of a USGS Powell Center Working Group “What lies below” and member of the Kukaniloko Master Planning Working Group and the state Greenhouse Gas Sequestration Task Force (formerly Carbon Farming Task Force). Susan is an associate editor for the journal Biogeochemistry and belongs to the American Geophysical Union, Soil Science Society of America, Soil and Water Conservation Society, and International Soil Carbon Network.