Team   /   Susie Burpee

Susie Burpee

Executive Director,
Balancing Act Canada

Susie Burpee is the Executive Director of Balancing Act Canada, a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing equity for artist and arts worker parents and caregivers across Canada. A former professional dance artist, mother, and caregiver, Susie brings both lived experience and deep sector knowledge to her leadership in transforming arts workplaces through advocacy, policy development, and systems change.

Following the completion of her MA in Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at University of Toronto, Susie authored Disappearing Act: Dance Artist Mothers in the Gig Economy of the Performing Arts in Canada (Demeter Press, 2021), which examined the systemic barriers faced by artist mothers working within Canada’s gig-based arts economy. Her research connected her with a national network of artist-feminist activists and caregiver advocates, including Lisa Marie DiLiberto, founder of Balancing Act Canada.

Over the past five years, Susie has led Balancing Act’s flagship Level UP! initiative, guiding more than 150 arts organizations and employers nationwide in developing caregiver-inclusive workplace policies and practices. Through this work, she has helped drive meaningful cultural change in a sector where many artist caregivers — particularly self-employed women — continue to face inequitable conditions that force impossible choices between sustaining a career and caring for family.

Drawing from her own experience as a dance artist who brought her toddlers to rehearsals and classes in order to continue working, Susie is deeply committed to building a more sustainable, compassionate, and inclusive arts ecology in Canada. She considers it a privilege to contribute to a growing movement that centres care as essential cultural infrastructure.