Sue Citro

Sue Citro, Best Friends' Chief Experience Officer, is responsible for how the development, digital, marketing communications and visitor experience teams function and work in new ways to bring more people into Best Friends' lifesaving work and the cause of no-kill.

Her accomplishments at Best Friends include bringing a team together to grow digital revenue dramatically in a three-year period. Sue helped Best Friends hold the first animal welfare thought leadership summit, with representatives from animal welfare organizations, shelter software groups and technology companies like Google and Facebook coming together to discuss how we can work together better.

In addition, Sue began the Super Friends network, comprising start-ups and companies producing mobile apps that provide lifesaving support for individuals and organizations in the animal welfare sector. Through this network, Best Friends was able to leverage eight lifesaving solutions, ranging from telemedicine apps to facial recognition and chat bots, to help save animals' lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. As a result of all our innovation work, the Best Friends Innovation Fund was started so that donors can make transformational gifts to advance the use of technology and innovation to aid Best Friends' lifesaving efforts.

Before joining Best Friends, Sue led new digital expansions for The Nature Conservancy in Asia and Latin America. She also grew the organization's U.S. digital revenue practice into a steady and reliable funding source. She started her career working at Peace Corps headquarters, followed by time at a direct mail agency and four years testing and piloting email strategies to drive e-commerce sales for Barnes and Noble's magazine subsidiary. Later, she led the digital consulting division at a company since acquired by Blackbaud.

Sue holds a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University and published a thesis that examines the internet's changing role and impact on public service advertising. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Jeremy, and their 103-pound rescued dog, "Little" Luca.