Susan D. Anderson is Director of Public Programs at the California Historical Society, established in 1871 and headquartered in San Francisco. Prior to coming to CHS, she served as Interim Chief Curator for the African American Museum & Library at Oakland. She is the founder of Memory House, a curatorial consulting firm that has assisted with projects to preserve history for the City of Berkeley, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Richmond Museum of History and the Mazisi Kunene Museum in Durban, South Africa.

Previously, she was a Curator in UCLA Library Special Collections and was Managing Director of L.A. as Subject, hosted by USC Libraries. As a public historian, she has worked throughout the state to increase public understanding of history, especially California’s African American history. Her book, Nostalgia for a Trumpet: Poems of Memory and History was published by Northwestern University Press. Her forthcoming book, African Americans and the California Dream, is under contract with Heyday Books.