Susan K. Laird, DNP, RN, BCPA, CPC, GC-C

As founder of Today Transitions, LLC, Susan works with adults facing significant decisions and periods of change, including career transitions, retirement, caregiving, health challenges, grief and loss, changing relationships, aging, and end-of-life decision-making. Her approach recognizes that transitions rarely affect just one part of a person’s life. A change in health may affect work and family. Retirement can change identity as well as routine. Grief can accompany a death, but it can also emerge when a career ends, a relationship changes, health declines, or a long-held version of the future no longer seems possible.

Susan brings an unusual combination of clinical expertise, communication skills, leadership experience, and lived experience with change to her coaching practice. Before entering healthcare, she built a successful career in marketing and advertising and was an award-winning broadcast writer and producer. She later made a major midlife career change herself, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and ultimately a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Georgia State University.

Her nursing career took her from the bedside to leadership roles in emergency and trauma care, nursing education, and healthcare administration. Her doctoral work focused on preparing nurses for roles in end-of-life decision-making. She later spent nearly 16 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working at the intersection of public health, science, communication, education, and leadership.

Those experiences reinforced a principle that is central to Susan’s work today: good decisions are not always about finding one perfect answer. They are about understanding the choices available, identifying what matters most, and making the best decision possible with the information available at the time.

Susan provides a confidential, compassionate, and non-judgmental environment where clients can step away from the noise surrounding a difficult decision or transition. Rather than telling people what they should do, she helps them examine possibilities, clarify priorities, recognize barriers, and determine what moving forward can realistically look like.