Susan Stout
Founder
Susan educates and consults with athletic coaches to bring out the best in athletes who are wired differently – specializing in ADHD, learning differences and anxiety.
Susan built Own Beat Athlete based on her experience as a junior national-level swimmer and select soccer player, swim coach, teacher, lawyer and mom to a talented teen athlete with ADHD, dyslexia and anxiety.
She is trained in Mental Health First Aid and also has learned from the exceptional medical and mental health professionals who have taught her to better understand her son and to help him navigate the world of competitive sports.
Susan and her son virtual bowling in Miami. Guess who bowled the strike — and trounced his mom in air hockey.
After graduating from Duke University, Susan began her career coaching club and summer league swimming and teaching elementary and middle school in the Washington, D.C. area.
She later earned a Master's in Education from the University of Virginia and a law degree from Georgetown University.
As a litigator, her most rewarding work was pro bono representation of students with learning differences who were not receiving the services they deserved in the D.C. public schools.
Susan is most inspired by her son, who, because of his wiring, has to go an extra mile to meet the demands of selective sports programs. She aims to equip others with what she wishes she had known when she was a coach trying to support and motivate the many athletes who didn't fit the mold.
Read more about how Susan got here and what Own Beat Athlete brings to the coaching community: What I Wish I Knew Then