Sue Scanlon graduated with honors from Ithaca College, earning her undergraduate degree in music education. Within five years of graduation, Sue had been a faculty member at the Ithaca Community Music School; served as the organist and music director at St. Catherine of Siena, a church in Cayuga Heights, New York; and taught in the public schools in Sayville, New York. Then things changed.

Sue decided to enroll at Cornell University and earned an M.B.A. and a law degree. From there, she went on to specialize in corporate finance with Nixon Peabody in Rochester, before becoming general counsel for the Rochester-based Schlegel Corp., an international industrial manufacturer. She eventually became vice president and general counsel of Schlegel. Following the company's sale, she founded Corporate Legal Management, offering legal and legal administrative services exclusively to in-house counsel.

Sue was elected to the Ithaca College Board of Trustees in 2000, where she served as chair of the Campus Life Committee and the Committee on Trusteeship. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the board for nine years and is proud to have served on the presidential search committee which brought President Tom Rochon to the College. Sue completed her 10-year term in May 2010.