Susan Stuelpner Klobuchar

• Class of: Col ’96
• Current city: Crozet, VA
• Current job: CMO of the Alumni Association
• Bodo’s Order OR Favorite Charlottesville Spot:  I am a creature of habit, so I always get the same thing: turkey and provolone on a plain bagel with tomato and mayo. It’s a little slice of heaven! When I lived in Minneapolis and would come back to Charlottesville, I would always load up my suitcase with Bodo’s and bring a ton of bagels back for friends and family! You just can’t get good bagels in Minnesota.

Tell us your UVA story. What did you do during your time on Grounds? What were your favorite memories?

UVA is special to me because it is the first home that I chose for myself. I was the first in my family to go away to college, so things like living in a dorm and eating in a dining hall were not just new experiences for me, but something that my whole family experienced vicariously through me. A lifelong bookworm, I majored in English and loved all the English, history and foreign language classes I was able to take in the College. I participated in student government (First Year Council, Lambeth Council) and Madison House. I also joined a sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, which not only taught me how to lead but gave me a group of sisters I admire and adore. I worked for UVA Conference Services one summer, which helped me realize how much I love connecting with people, and parlayed that into my first post-graduate job in conference and event planning.

Tell us what you’re up to today!

After grad school at UNC and a career in consumer product marketing for companies like General Mills, I’m thrilled to return to UVA and serve as the CMO of the Alumni Association. It’s such a great opportunity to give back to the place that I love and to foster connections within our alumni community. In my personal life, I’m married to a Minnesota Gopher who teaches high school English and we are raising three future Wahoos (along with a very opinionated PBGV, a French hound). In my free time, I’m also an avid reader and writer. I get up every morning at 5 a.m. to write and have connected with some other UVA writers online during the early morning hours!

What makes you say Wahoowa?

I say Wahoowa when I see members of the UVA community ‘in the wild,’ so to speak! I love connecting with fellow Hoos wherever I am. I have unexpectedly met Wahoos on a New York City subway, at a pizzeria in the Minneapolis suburbs, within the walls of a government agency, and online in a Twitter writing group. There’s a certain sort of magic when Hoos connect, and it always makes me say Wahoowa.

What’s the biggest way in which you hope alumni can impact UVA?

I hope that alumni can stay connected to each other and to UVA, and to push UVA to be the best version of itself that it can be. For me, that means creating a UVA that is more inclusive, more equitable, and more representative of the future that we want to see. Alumni are uniquely suited to make their voices heard, and I love being part of an Alumni Association that is specifically designed to serve as the voice of alumni.

Pick a pillar that best captures your life today:

Connect

Why does that pillar speak to you?

The Connect pillar speaks to me because I am a lifelong Connector. I love to bring people together and to find common ground; it’s just who I am. Even in my writing, I find that I often write about themes of connection and belonging.