Susan M. Hunter was a tremendous influence in the field of corrections. During her early life she was steeped in Catholic teachings that impressed upon her the importance of high standards of conduct and discipline as well as charity toward worthy causes that emphasized helping others less fortunate. She spent several years as a novice in a Catholic convent steeping herself in the Church's teachings and developing helping skills before she left the convent to practice her values and lend her helping skills in prison settings.

She began her correctional career in the state of Iowa, where she rose through the ranks to the position of Warden of the Iowa Correctional Center for Women. It was during her work in that facility that she developed a deep passion for the unique needs of women with regard to security, treatment, programs, and staffing of women's prisons. She also became particularly aware of the various prison cultures and how they affect the staff, operations, programs of an institution and consequently the safety and security of staff and inmates working and residing in that culture.

Susan participated in the IAP program between state agencies and the National Institute of Corrections by offering her services in Washington where she could make a larger impact on corrections nationally. It was during this assignment that she became intimately involved in ASCA where she found ways to offer meaningful assistance to correctional agencies. Among her ASCA achievements was her thoughtful contributions to ASCA's goals for staff development. Susan played an integral role in the planning and development of ASCA’s training programs.

She was a seasoned administrator, a mentor to many corrections professionals and an advocate for change. She developed NIC's culture initiative that still lives in ongoing culture assessments for troubled institutions followed by mentoring those institutions in their efforts to lead and sustain change. She also focused on women prisoners' issues and fought hard to educate corrections about the gender differences that command different and more appropriate methods of correction to be applied to females.

When she died of breast cancer in 2004, ASCA’s Past Presidents’ Committee, had been working toward a scholarship program for children of correctional staff. In the wake of her death, ASCA grieved the loss of Susan, and the Committee made a logical decision to name the scholarship program after Susan, who had embodied the ideals of an educated and enlightened correctional workforce. Her life’s work continues in our memory of what she held dear, which is now expressed in our profession with contributions to deserving students whose parents labor in our Association's chosen field.

In January of 2012 Susan's husband Gary said that Susan's friends and colleagues may like to know that their daughter Amanda, now 19, is a sophomore at High Point University in North Carolina and exhibits Susan's physical and leadership characteristics.