As President of the James Beard Foundation, an organization dedicated to celebrating, preserving, and nurturing America’s culinary heritage, Susan Kelliher Ungaro  hopes to expand the foundation’s culinary scholarship program,  and increase its membership base and promotion on a national level.
Before joining the Beard Foundation in April, 2006, she was editor-in-chief of the much-loved Family Circle magazine.

A former Irish America Keynote Speaker, Ungaro’s many honors include the William Paterson University Legacy Award, and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund Muriel Fox communication award. She was also honored by President Reagan’s Office for Consumer Affairs for her “outstanding contribution to increasing consumer awareness in America.”

She is a  first-generation Irish-American. Both her father, Thomas Gerard Kelliher, and her mother, the former Mary Christina Brosnan, were born in Castlegregory, County Kerry. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and three children, and has visited Ireland four times.