Susan Borrego(she/her)

Susan Borrego is a Director of Employee Health Services with over 24 years in occupational and environmental health nursing. She works inside hospitals to protect the health and safety of healthcare workers — making sure new hires are cleared to work, managing tuberculosis surveillance, responding to blood exposure emergencies, and creating a confidential, supportive space where employees can come when they're struggling. Her job sits at the crossroads of nursing, public health, management, and counseling, and she has built large-scale programs serving workforces of up to 5,000 employees. Susan's path was anything but straight. Before nursing, she worked in accounts receivable, banking, an insurance actuarial department, and even a semiconductor chip lab in early Silicon Valley. It wasn't until her late 20s — inspired partly by her mother's unfulfilled dream of becoming a nurse — that she enrolled at Chico State, packed her 1966 Mustang, and started over. She paid her way through college cooking at a steak and seafood restaurant. That kind of resilience and willingness to pivot showed up again and again throughout her career. After becoming a registered nurse, Susan worked in hospital bedside care, public health with migrant farmworker families (using her Spanish), and services for people with developmental disabilities before finding her true calling in occupational health. She earned a master's degree in Occupational and Environmental Health and went on to lead employee health programs at multiple hospitals — including a three-year stint at Kaiser Hawaii after being laid off and deciding to treat it as an opportunity rather than an ending. For students of color, Susan's story is a powerful reminder that your career doesn't have to look like a straight line to be successful. She drew on community, language skills, and a deep desire to make a difference in people's lives — values that are deeply familiar to many students from underrepresented backgrounds. Her advice is practical and direct: get your RN and bachelor's degree, pursue your certified occupational health nurse credential after two years in the field, and always keep your resume up to date. She also talks openly about salary — starting around $60,000 and growing to $159,000 — so you can enter these conversations informed.