Susan Templeman spent 1981 in Mexico as a Rotary Youth Exchange student, sponsored by Strathfield Club at aged 17. Prior to that she had taken part in Rotary debating competitions, joined the Rotaract Club in Strathfield and attended RYLA.
In 1985, Susan began work as a journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery for Radio 2UE. For three years she reported on Australian politics, and then spent three years as a foreign correspondent, working in New York and London.
Returning to Australia in late 1990, Susan and her husband Ron built a home in the Blue Mountains. Working first at Telecom in the media relations team, Susan soon found herself with a new baby setting up her own freelance business.
Within a few years she had formed Media Skills Pty Ltd, a specialist media training business, which could she operated for almost 25 years, later becoming Templeman Consulting. Working across every part of the private sector - from farming to IT, biotech to investment banking - and extensively in Federal, State and Territory departments and the non-government sphere, Susan helped hundreds of organisations and tens of thousands of individuals improve their ability to handle media interviews.
While running a thriving business, in 2009 Susan decided to run for public office. She won preselection for the Labor Party to contest the 2010 Federal election in the marginal seat of Macquarie, representing her home of the Blue Mountains and the neighbouring Hawkesbury.
She lost that election, but was determined to recontest, and was again unsuccessful at the 2013 election. A few weeks later, her family was one of 200 who lost their home in the 2013 Winmalee bushfires.
She has since rebuilt the family home, and her continued commitment to the local community delivered results in 2016, when she was elected as the Federal Member for Macquarie.