PRIDE Diversity Profile: Sue Weller
“I came here in a cardboard box at age 1. I can do anything”.
Sue Weller (she/her) is the 2023 Vice Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and a proud member of LGBTQ+ community.
Sue utilizes the knowledge and expertise she gained while earning her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management to drive the success of her work with LGBTQ+ advocacy groups. She has served as the Board Chair for AFFA (Alliance for Full Acceptance), the Unitarian Church and the Board of We Are Family. She participated in the Reading with Realtors® program and continues to track her students’ success. Her advocacy focus is on Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives with an emphasis on LGBTQ+ issues.
At just one year of age, Sue arrived in the United States from Vietnam, during Operation Babylift, the mass evacuation of more than 3,000 children from war-torn South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Sue was adopted into an Irish-Polish Catholic American family and raised in New Jersey as one of eight fostered and adopted children of various nationalities.
Sue pursued her undergrad studies at Montclair State University before earning her Masters in Non-Profit Management from the Pratt Institute. Sue worked as the marketing photographer for Macy’s, then pivoted to Verizon Wireless for an 8-year tenure as a Customer Care Technical Support Manager. Her desire to help people and achieve a better work life balance led her to real estate.
She began her real estate career with Carolina One Real Estate on Charlotte Bova’s team before moving to Harbor City Real Estate Advisors, where she met a mentor, Chris Cunniffe. Sue says Chris impacted her growth and success with his holistic approach to real estate—he taught her to narrow her focus on the business she wanted to pursue, which led to more satisfaction, personal happiness and success. This not only changed her outlook on real estate, it helped her sharpen her focus on her purpose of helping others.
In 2020, with the establishment of the CTAR Diversity, Equity and Inclusion taskforce, then CTAR President-Elect Rusty Hughes tapped Sue for association leadership when he suggested she join the group. She felt the opportunity to bringing change to the industry as a whole energized her and was honored to serve on the initial DEI taskforce. Her contributions to the group have since grown into a leadership role with the standing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee. Her life experiences have prepared her to lead the committee that focuses on ensuring that CTAR as an organization is inclusive, welcoming and a safe space for all Realtors®.
Sue says her greatest challenge was being a queer person of color in a predominantly white city. She said, “I had to work extra hard to gain trust and respect, versus it being normal to defer to white people”. She also speaks of experiences where she was discriminated against and lost clients because she is queer. She believes there are still challenges, but that positive progress is happening. Sue believes with increased representation of the LGTBQIA+ community and work such as the initiatives CTAR is pursuing, things will continue to get better with time.
As the next step in her 13-year real estate career, she recently began her journey into appraisal work. As she felt her work with residential real estate grow stagnant, she knew it was time for a new challenge. Sue focused on crossing over into a field that would allow her to continue to make change. After reading an article about issues a family of color who received a low appraisal due to their race and with the implicit societal biases that continue, she decided to become an appraiser to ensure that people can have a fair and impartial assessment of their home. While her current focus is on appraisals, she leaves the door open to other real estate opportunities.
When asked what valuable piece of advise she would give to new agents she replied, “Be the change you want to see” Sue would love to establish a grant for financially underprivileged or minority students that have the skills, personality and drive to be great real estate agents, and aspires to join CTAR’s Board of Directors. To summarize her outlook on life and career, Sue says, “I came here in a cardboard box at age 1. I can do anything”.
