Susan Elizabeth McClelland was born in Toronto and spent part of her childhood in England and Florida. Her grandfather, a Toronto businessman; grandmother, an avid reader; her mother, a professional musician; and her father, a physical-organic chemistry professor at the University Toronto and fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, exposed Susan to traveling and world issues at a young age. Despite growing up surrounded by an eclectic bunch of scientists, performing artists and writers, it was a high school world issues class that turned Susan's attention toward becoming a journalist.

Susan went on to receive an honour's degree in political science from McMaster University, with a minor in peace studies. Her particular interest was Central American politics and liberation movements. While at McMaster, Susan worked at the Children's International Learning Centre, a project partially funded by UNICEF Canada. Susan was the recipient of a Week of the Child certificate of honour from the city of Hamilton for her work with children and the centre.

In 1998, Susan received a master's of arts in communications, specializing
in print journalism from the University of Miami. She attended the university on a scholarship, and while there, Susan wrote for the Miami Herald and interned at the New York Times Florida, Caribbean and Central American bureau.

Also while in Miami, Susan landed her first investigative reporting story. A Canadian consul representative introduced her to several Canadian women serving federal prison sentences for smuggling cocaine from Jamaica into the United States. A series Susan wrote on this topic subsequently earned her first investigative award from the Society of Professional Journalists (US) in the student competition.

Susan went on to Maclean's, Canada's weekly news-magazine. There she began to distinguish herself as both an investigative reporter and feature writer. Her first investigative story at Maclean's examined the exotic wildlife trade in North America and was nominated for a National Magazine Award.

Susan also wrote numerous stories at Maclean's on the lifestyles of women and children. Her repertoire ranged from stories on swing clubs to child poverty in Canada; the importance of dads to UFO phenomenon in Canada; the impact of war on children to the plight of Sudanese slaves; straight edge youth culture to children conceived through sperm donation. The latter, a Maclean's cover story, was copied nearly verbatim by CBS' 60 Minutes.

In 2005, Susan became a full-time freelance writer. Today, her stories appear in many of the top magazines in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. She is also a book writer. And she is the writer and consultant for documentary films.

Susan¹s hobbies include cooking, skiing, hiking, jazz and world music and oil painting. As a teenager, she was a competitive golfer and played varsity tennis. She splits her time between Toronto and Scotland, where much of her family now live.