A native of Brooklyn, New York, Susan Lawrence entered Barnard College at the age of 14 to escape a troubled family. She was inspired and mentored by Christiaan Barnard, the South African surgeon who performed the world’s first human heart transplant. Susan entered Baylor College of Medicine at 18. A rotation in medical oncology drew her to work with the terminally ill. She became a board certified internist and medical oncologist and opened her practice of medical oncology in Lancaster, CA, in 1985.