Meet Susan Burgstrom.

Q: What inspired you or led you to your current career?

A: I was inspired to pursue a degree and career in Urban Planning while on a high school mission trip through the Appalachia Service Project, which helps prepare and provide warmer, safer, and drier housing to residents in the Appalachian region. Over the three one-week trips I made to West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky, I met amazing people with significant basic needs, and worked on roofs, stabilizing foundations, a front porch, and new bedrooms for kids. I have worked in community planning for over 20 years now based on that foundation.

Q: How long have you lived or worked in Champaign-Urbana?

A: I was born and raised in Champaign, and have lived and worked in C-U for most of my life.

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Champaign-Urbana?

A: Really tough question! Depends on my mood/craving, but the Courier Cafe, Sun Singer, and Monical’s Pizza quickly come to mind.

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in Champaign-Urbana?

A: There are so many people I have met here who I would love to sit down with and listen to for hours on end. I can just hope to have the opportunity to do that as many times as possible, with as many of those people as possible, now and in the future.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

A: There’s a few countries in Europe I’d like to get back to…I spent a semester studying in England back in 1996, and the University of Sheffield’s incredible 5 week spring break gave me time to visit quite a few countries. I would like to visit the city of Prague, because I’ve heard how beautiful it is. I’d also like to take my daughters so they can experience how different Europe’s communities and cultures are from ours.

Q: What advice would you give to a crowd of people?

A: Current answer: social distancing! Non-pandemic answer: be kind no matter what.

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

A: To see the Northern Lights in their prime.

Q: What current/former local business makes you nostalgic about Champaign-Urbana?

A: Kuhn’s in downtown Champaign. My dad and grandpa shopped at their big and tall store, and I remember my grandma taking me shopping on the upper floors when they had a full department. The nostalgia is more about spending time with those who are no longer here, but also stuff I did when I was a kid like weighing on the scale there, and an employee letting me run a mail cylinder through the chutes running through the first floor. I’m still curious about what those upper floors now hold.

Q: What is something unique about Champaign-Urbana?

A: For a small city, we’re on the cutting edge of a lot of things due to the University.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

A: In 10 years I’ll be in my mid fifties, I hope to be retired and visiting my 3 girls wherever they will be. Right now they’re 16, 15, and 11, and each have dreams that might take them pretty far from here.

Q: (Even for friends and family) what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you ?

A: I was a Peace Corps representative in El Salvador from 1998 to 2000. Getting to meet people with such joy, faith, and kindness who had come out of a brutal civil war only 6 years earlier gave me such an appreciation for all the blessings in life, and that they can be found every day if we set our minds to it.

Q: What 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?

A: Home is wherever my family is. Champaign. Growing up in Morrissey Park area.

Q: If you have a full time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose? Chef, Housekeeper, Driver, Coach, Physical Fitness Trainer, or Nanny?

A: Physical Fitness Trainer – I am incredibly unmotivated by exercise unless it involves dessert!

Q: Over the past few weeks, where have you seen Champaign-Urbana “Stronger Together”?

A: It’s a unique time with brand new challenges. C-U is stronger together in its efforts to provide food for all its children through the schools and other agencies. There are a lot of God sightings everywhere as people go out of their way to help others during the pandemic. Hoping that those efforts will continue and grow once we have gotten back to a new normal!