By Dorian Martin ’06

Susan Fox-Forrester has lived a colorful life, both literally and figuratively. The assessment coordinator for Department of Student Affairs, Planning, Assessment & Research parlayed her experience overseeing home furnishing color control into a career in educational assessment. In her downtime, she’s performed in choirs and theatre, indulged her love of gardens, and fell in love with West Texas. The department is part of the Division of Student Affairs at Texas A&M.

Color My World

Raised in a small town in Wisconsin, Fox-Forrester earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational communications from St. Norbert College, located in DePere, Wisconsin. While those in higher education appreciate the quality of the Catholic college’s academics, football fans would know St. Norbert as the site of the Green Bay Packers’ training camp. Yet, Fox-Forrester admits she’s not an avid Cheesehead. “If I watch football, I’m a Packer fan, but I’m not a huge football fan,” she admitted.

After graduation, Fox-Forrester moved to the East Coast to begin what would become a 26-year retail career with J.C. Penney. Initially assigned to the company’s corporate offices in New York City, she transferred to Dallas, Texas when retail giant’s headquarters relocated. “I worked in product development, quality control and testing,” she said. “I used to be responsible for the performance testing of home furnishings that the company sold.” 

Eventually, her role at the company literally took on a different hue, thanks to the interior design trends of the late 80s and 90s. “You bought curtains and drapes and bedspreads—and all that was supposed to match. I ran the program that ensured that those components would match,” she said. “That position rolled into doing color management for all private label JC Penney products and wearing apparel. I worked with buyers, product development managers and designers as they were picking their palettes for the season and how they took those choices and then translated them to actual products.”

Head West

Yet the pressure-filled role eventually lost its luster, and Fox-Forrester decided it was time to reinvent herself. She moved with her husband, a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer-turned-attorney, to Alpine, Texas in 2006. “It was really beautiful out there and we loved living there,” she said. 

Drawn to career counseling, she enrolled in Sul Ross State University, where she earned a master’s degree in education and counseling. Immediately after finishing her degree, she was named Sul Ross’s director of career services and testing. “I got to do exactly what I wanted to do,” she said. 

Eventually, her husband, who was practicing law with a friend, started suffering professional burn-out. “Being the good career counselor I was, we started to explore other options. He has always been a horse guy, so he started a master’s program in equine science at Sul Ross,” she said. “A semester into it, he said, ‘I would like to try to get into vet school.’ So we went on the journey that brought us to Texas A&M.”

Welcome to Aggieland

Her husband entered the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the age of 58—and graduated in 2017 at the age of 62. The couple anticipated that they would return to West Texas but haven’t relocated yet. “We’re still here—which is a surprise to both of us,” she said. 

While her husband pursued his studies, Fox-Forrester joined DSA’s Student Affairs, Planning, Assessment & Research—and found her career coming full circle. “It turns out that the work I do as an assessment coordinator is very similar to what I did for Penney’s all those years ago, except I’m not looking at the quality and performance of products. I’m looking at the performance and quality of processes,” she explained. 

She also is incorporating her Sul Ross experiences into her current role helping DSA student organizations and departments evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations.  “In career counseling work, assessment looms very large,” she said. “You have to prove that your services are doing what they are intended to do.”

Blooming Interests

Yet many of her childhood friends and college classmates would be surprised by Fox-Forrester’s career trajectory. “Everyone thought I was going to be a music major in college, but I didn’t want that kind of intensity,” she said, noting that she grew up singing. 

She continued to explore this interest when she began taking private voice lessons at the age of 30. That led to performing in choirs and musical theater while living in Alpine--and a love of opera. “I got into listening to opera because it is fun to listen to all those people doing some things that are just incredible with their voices,” said Fox-Forrester. 

She’s equally passionate about gardens. “I am an eternal optimist so I love gardens. Whenever I visit places, I go to gardens,” she said. “I got that bug when I started my career in home furnishings. I worked with two gentlemen who were from the Southeast, and we travelled to the textile and dye mills in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. One of the gentlemen was really into flowers and quilting so he would take us to all these fabulous gardens.”

Yet she struggles with maintaining a green thumb. “I try—I can’t say that I’m terribly successful all the time, but I keep trying,” she said. “You would think I would be much better because of my interest level. I grow a lot of herbs and I try to grow vegetables, but I can’t seem to get a zucchini to go to fruition.”