About Sue Ann Rawlins
Author, Connector, Podcast Host
Her Story
Sue Ann Rawlins loves meeting new people. As an Adult Education ESL teacher, she’s met hundreds of students from all over the world. With social energy to spare, she’s also met many people online and formed friendships, often traveling to meet them in person. Until the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, this hobby did not include meeting people working on a political campaign. But when she heard Mayor Pete Buttigieg speak about immigration issues from a community perspective—something near and dear to her heart—she was sold. She decided to do all she could to help this remarkable, once-in-a-generation candidate win the nomination.
After getting her feet wet with the Minnesota for Pete group,
Sue Ann branched out and traveled around interviewing grassroots volunteers she’d met on Twitter for her podcast Twitter Travels for Pete. Being a podcast host was so fun she continued doing episodes even after the campaign ended, first with a series on Pete’s Rules of the Road and then a series on transportation issues once Pete became Secretary of Transportation. All twenty-eight episodes of the Twitter Travels for Pete podcast are still live and can be found on various platforms. Sue Ann continues to support the issues advocated by Pete in the campaign through the Win the Era Action Fund. She has a home with the Team Pete community, especially on Twitter, and still travels to meet those kindred spirits in person.
Before her Traveling the Trail for Pete memoir, Sue Ann was no stranger to writing about her travels to meet online friends.
Her previous book Novel Friends: an unexpected journey from online to real life was of the same vein and is still available on Amazon. To support the book, she wrote more than a hundred blog posts on friendship for her former Susie Young at Heart website. Sue Ann is an experienced speaker and facilitator, having earned the Distinguished Toastmaster distinction through Toastmasters International. Sue Ann lives in Minneapolis with her husband, adult son, and dog Jojo.