Dr. Susan Shay is an independent researcher and a member of the Heritage Research Group at the University of Cambridge. She investigates and explores how participation in legal processes both impacts Indigenous heritage and is a meaningful tool for Indigenous empowerment. She has had an extensive career as a Registered Architect, specializing in historic preservation and adaptive reuse. Her professional practice ranged from disaster mitigation planning for community recovery and disaster recovery of historic resources to large scale commercial projects and residential renovations. Susan’s organizational experience extended from being Chief Architect for a national corporation to running her own private architectural practice. Additionally, she was Historic Preservation and Environmental Team Lead for the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), conducting legal reviews for the obligation of federal funds following catastrophic natural disasters. Susan has a PhD in Heritage from the University of Cambridge, a Master’s Degree Historic Preservation from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Penn State. To learn how to effectively use historic preservation as an economic vehicle to enhance community development, she also pursued graduate studies in Real Estate Development at New York University.