Susana De Moya was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1922.  Her adolescence was marked by a friendly society and of intimately linked neighborhoods that instilled in her an appreciation for the popular unity that was inhaled in the parks, streets and passages of the town.  Mentally agile and decisive, she undertook her professional studies in the Faculty of Laws of the University of Santo Domingo where she became the second Dominican woman to obtain the degree of Doctor of Laws.  Following her university studies, she married Oscar de Moya, also a lawyer.

Susana’s career in the Foreign Service began when her husband was named as the Dominican Consul in Cap Haitian, Haiti in 1944. At that time relations between the two nations were very difficult and unpredictable. In this environment she developed a charitable sensitivity and she became protective of acquaintances and foreigners.

Other diplomatic postings including Quito, Ecuador and, later, Port au Prince, Haiti, profiled her as an internationalist.  Because of the bloody menace of the Trujillo regime, Oscar, Susana and their daughter, Susanita, were forced to flee, as so many Dominicans had done, and in 1949 the family sought exile in the United States

Oscar and Susana found employment with shipping companies when they arrived in Baltimore.  In 1968 Oscar was named Dominican Consul in Baltimore.  Susana established personal and professional relations at official and political levels.  She directed her humanitarian impulses to aid those who needed assistance or friendship.  In official meetings she was the catalytic stimulus among the different nationalities.  In the popular world she was the friend, the one who provided direction and welcomed the poor or encouraged the stowaway surprised on the docks and whose circumstances required the intervention of the Consul.  When Oscar became ill, Susana was designated as Vice-Consul, a position she held until her death.

As Baltimore’s Dominican population grew, Susana was transformed into a force that moved all the various groups:  the churches, the social clubs, and the neighborhoods where the immigrants had become established.  Her presence established a sense of trust and unity and her influence helped others in the process of social adaptation.

Susana manifested an extraordinary affinity for creating and reinforcing projects devoted to the development of Dominican children and other Latin American immigrants.  When the Dominican Republic suffered terrible natural catastrophes she became the clarion voice and the cohesive force that drives the search for assistance, converting her home into a veritable warehouse filled with goods destined for Santo Domingo.

Considering that Susana contributed for so many years in an unselfish, noble and impartial way of maintaining the cultural tradition of her country of origin and dedicated her life to empowering the intellectual growth of Dominican children, her friends have established the SUSANA DE MOYA FOUNDATION.  This foundation is dedicated to recognizing the scholastic merit of Dominican adolescents by providing an economic contribution as well as providing mentors that would encourage and stimulate the students to continue their academic life.