Susan Bergtraum

Board Trustee and District Clerk 
Nassau BOCES

Born into a family of educators, Susan Bergtraum learned to appreciate and to admire her mother's profession early on in life.

The greatest teachers, she says, bring passion to their work. They take great joy watching students progress — not just academically — but in all aspects of life. Through her role as board trustee and district clerk for Nassau BOCES, Bergtraum has been a most passionate advocate for the county's students of all ages and abilities. She joined the agency's board in 2006 and was elected its district clerk in 2009.

Previously, Bergtraum sat on the board of the East Williston UFSD, where her three children attended school. She joined the board in 1991 and served as president from 2001 to 2006. She is also the co-founder and a trustee of the East Williston Education Foundation and a trustee of the Wheatley Scholarship Fund.

Bergtraum is a past president and vice president of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association and currently sits on its Executive, Legislation, Finance and Member Board-in-Service committees. On the state level, she is a member of the Board of Directors for the New York State School Boards Association, where she also serves on the Executive Committee, chairs the Operations Committee and is a member of the Federal Relations Network. In addition, she was the director of training for the nationally recognized children's safety program "Playing It Safe" and co-authored its book.

She has been honored for her commitment to education by several organizations, including the Council for Prejudice Reduction, which awarded her the Detective Joe Zito Memorial Award in 2002. Other awards include the Friends of Education Award, the Council of Administrators and Supervisors Award and the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association Presidential Award.

Bergtraum completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Queens College; she received a bachelor's in education and a master's in school psychology. She has taught in both New York City and Washington, D.C., and worked on a special education evaluation team in New York City. She lives in Old Westbury, N.Y.