Susan Can, B.S.N., M.A.

As Operation Smile’s senior vice president of global marketing, Susan Can leads all aspects of the nonprofit’s brand, communications, marketing and content strategies. Since joining the organization in 2022, Can has introduced several new key initiatives to Operation Smile, including its participation at the 2023 Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda and a first-of-its kind partnership with Beast Philanthropy. She works closely with Operation Smile’s global leadership team and regional partners to drive awareness and engagement for the organization’s brand. She is also responsible for developing and executing marketing strategies and campaigns to reach untapped audiences and increase support for the organization’s efforts to provide free, life-changing care for patients around the world.

Prior to Operation Smile, Can was a pioneering marketing leader at Johnson & Johnson for over 20 years. There, she drove the Fortune 50 company’s strategy in social impact marketing, providing new global sponsorship opportunities and novel content development programming. She cultivated key partnerships with Save the Children, Operation Smile, (RED), The United Nations Foundation, United States Services Organization (USO) and Global Citizen, leading to her being directly chosen as loaned executive in support of Global Citizen’s live campaign, Global Goal Live (2020). The event drew more than 270,000,000 people worldwide, raising $125,000,000 for the WHO and frontline healthcare workers, hailing as one of Fast Company’s most innovative live events of 2021. 

In 2019, Can and her team at Johnson & Johnson were awarded the Cannes Lion Grand Prix (and other numerous prestigious awards) for the company’s involvement in the feature documentary 5B, which commissioned Oscar-winning directors to detail the heroic efforts of those on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic. Can was also responsible for developing the digital strategy partnerships that drove awareness for Save the Children and the United Nations Foundation. 

As a marketing leader, Can led multiple product and procedure businesses in Johnson & Johnson’s surgical company Ethicon Endo-Surgery. She steered EES into growth franchises in both the bariatric and plastic surgery markets. 

Can holds a clinical background as a registered nurse and has paved her career to support her belief that “doing good business and doing good in the world is symbiotic.”

Originally from Ohio, Can is currently based in New York City.