Susan Austin Warner first met Jack and Elizabeth Warner in 1989, when she and her first husband moved into the Chancellor’s residence in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The residence was the childhood home of Jack Warner and had been gifted to the University of Alabama in the mid 1970s. A chronic disease epidemiologist since 1973, Susan discovered her passion for art as a result of her frequent exposure to Warner’s impressive and ever-growing collection of masterpiece sFrom 1989 until 1997, By 2000, Susan had become an experienced docent at the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut which led her to change her career in epidemiology to accept an offer to work with Jack to develop his new museum in 2003. Once onboard, she began a docent training and 5th Grade Education program, closely resembling the New Britain Museum model.
Since the Museum’s closing in 2012 and Jack’s death in 2017, Susan has led the Board of Directors to re-focus the Foundation’s undertakings to continue Warner’s passion of fostering an understanding and appreciation of early American History through American Art .