The Policy & Innovation Center (PIC) is led by President and CEO Susan Guinn, who is also the Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at the San Diego Foundation. Susan has spent the last several years in the public sector focused on coalition building. In her role with the San Diego Foundation, Susan builds government partnerships and is a serial entrepreneur, creating the Policy & Innovation Center, the Housing Fund, the Black Homebuyers program, and Level Up, to name a few.   At the Policy & Innovation Center, Susan formed a long term partnership with the Brookings Institution, and a government and agency council consisting of the County, 18 municipalities and core agencies to work collectively on the regions biggest challenges. 

Prior to this time, Susan served as special advisor at the County of San Diego where she advised on complex policy and budget issues; recommended appointments to boards and commissions; served as the liaison to unions and labor organizations; and, developed pubic private partnerships and grant strategies. Some of her favorite achievements while working with the County include drafting a policy to create its Human Relations Commission and establishing a public-private partnership resulting in the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund, which raised and deployed $64 million into the community in 18 months, assisting over 250 businesses and nonprofit organizations. She also created a first-of-its-kind local government loan program backed by state guarantees of 95%, offering millions of dollars in low-interest loans to struggling small businesses and nonprofits.

Susan brings more than 30 years of legal experience spanning tobacco litigation, consumer and workers’ rights, climate protection, and human rights. For example, as one of her firm’s four trial counsel for the County of Los Angeles tobacco case, Susan and her team secured a $3.3 billion settlement with a further $12.7 billion settlement for the State of California for health and human services, smoking cessation programs, and health research. Susan’s legal career also includes 15 years as principal of Guinn Law Firm, which received one of the largest individual wrongful termination verdicts in San Diego history, as well as multiple seven-and eight-figure settlements, awards, and verdicts – from class actions, business fraud, LGBTQ rights, to product liability. Before her law career, Susan worked as a registered nurse in the emergency room, labor and delivery, and newborn ICU. 

Susan has served on numerous local boards and committees, including the San Diego Zoo Global Foundation,St. Paul’s Foundation of International Reconciliation, San Diego Unified School District’s (SDUSD) Environmental Sustainability Action Committee, and Equality California.