Susan Gallagher has created with clay for more than thirty-five years. After establishing an active studio and teaching for many years, she returned to school in 1987. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she graduated in 1991 with a BFA in Ceramics, with minors in Sculpture and Fiber. In 1994, Susan established a new studio (SMG Icon Ceramics) in Cleveland, Ohio. She has continued to teach ceramics in such diverse venues as Clayworks Pottery Cooperative and Beck Center for the Arts.

Susan works with the rhythms, textures and colors of nature in her carved functional ceramics. She exhibits her work regionally with past exhibitions at River Gallery, Rocky River, Ohio, and Uncommon Objects, in Oberlin, Ohio. Since 2006, Susan has been the Associate Director of Visual Arts Education and the Director of the Jean Bulicek Gallery, at the Beck Center for the Arts. Susan has lived in Cleveland Heights for 39 years.