Sue Petersen Named 2026 Alexis T. Busch Award Winner
After more than three decades with the Giants, Sue Petersen – Executive Director of the Giants Community Fund – is being honored for her impact.
In 1995, Sue Petersen was home on maternity leave with her first child when the phone rang.
She had joined the Giants just two years earlier. And now, while still adjusting to life as a new mom, she was being asked to become Executive Director of the Giants Community Fund – the official 501(c)(3) nonprofit of the Giants.
“It was definitely surreal,” Petersen recalled. “I had to think for a minute: Can I do this?”
She said yes.
Now, more than 30 years later, Petersen is the recipient of the 2026 Alexis T. Busch Award, presented annually by Momentum, the women’s employee resource group at the Giants, to a woman in the organization who has contributed to the advancement of girls and women in sports.
The award honors the life and legacy of Alexis T. Busch, who made history as the first bat girl for the Giants and in Major League Baseball. Like Busch, Petersen built a place for herself in a part of the sports industry where few women were represented.
“I’m really humbled and honored to receive this,” Petersen said. “My career has been about making sure that other people are lifted up and other people receive awards, so it’s a little uncomfortable to receive one. And I am so proud to receive it in Alexis’ name.”
For Petersen, Busch’s legacy is also a reminder that the Giants extend far beyond the team that fans see on the field.
“The Giants are largely recognized as the players on the field, who are men, but when I think of the Giants, the players are just one part of the full picture,” Petersen said. “I’m surrounded by women and men who work together in the Front Office and throughout Oracle Park to run the entire operation.”
Today, women are leading the way across the organization in areas ranging from Communications and Marketing to Finance, Legal, Security and more.
“Women are breaking barriers in sports all the time and ultimately, each time a barrier is broken, we are closer to normalizing that there shouldn’t be a line or a barrier,” Petersen said. “It will just be the regular expectation of how we function.”
Finding Her Place in Sports
Growing up in El Cerrito, California, Petersen never imagined her career would include professional baseball. And at the time, a career in sports philanthropy was rare. The Giants Community Fund was not established until 1991, shortly after Petersen graduated from college.
At UC Berkeley, she majored in Political Economy of Industrial Societies, an interdisciplinary program that allowed her to study politics, history and city planning—along with memorable courses in subjects like folklore. Petersen chose the major because she wanted to better understand how the world worked, even if she was not yet sure where her curiosity might lead.
Community service, however, had always been part of her life. Her mother was a teacher and her father was deeply involved in civic work, including serving as mayor of El Cerrito. Petersen grew up volunteering and taking on leadership roles, believing she might one day work in education or public service.
Petersen says she found her first professional opportunity “the old-fashioned way” – in the classified section of the San Francisco Chronicle. The opening was for a development assistant at the San Francisco Education Fund.
Petersen did not initially know the role was heavy in fundraising responsibilities, but it quickly became a natural fit. Under the mentorship of the organization’s founder, Glady Thacher, Petersen learned the fundamentals of nonprofit work and the importance of caring for the people behind every contribution.
Thacher was known for adding a personal message in red pen to donor thank-you letters, and it is a practice Petersen carries with her today.
“Glady taught me that you do more than sign your name on a thank-you letter,” Petersen said. “You write something personal to thank people for how they stepped up.”
Petersen was happy in her role at the Ed Fund when a former supervisor encouraged her to explore new opportunities with the Giants. A new ownership group had just saved the team from relocating to Tampa Bay and was reimagining its relationship with the community.
A lifelong baseball fan and softball player, Petersen was intrigued.
She joined the Giants in 1993 as a Community Relations Coordinator, entering an all-male department at a time when women remained significantly underrepresented throughout professional sports. She also arrived during a period of change, as the Giants’ new ownership group encouraged the organization to listen more closely and rethink how it operated. That openness, she believes, created space for more women to step into leadership roles and make their mark across the organization.
“I was glad to be a young woman working in sports and bringing a new perspective,” Petersen said.
Helping Build the Fund’s Future
Petersen brought nonprofit experience that became increasingly valuable as the Giants Community Fund grew. She helped strengthen its fundraising practices, board operations and donor stewardship while taking on more responsibility behind the scenes.
In 1995, she received the call that would change the course of her career.
Under Petersen’s leadership as executive director, the Fund evolved from primarily providing grants into operating direct-service programs.
That shift included Junior Giants, which began with 19 leagues serving around 4,000 kids. Today, the Fund’s flagship program reaches more than 28,000 youth across 88 leagues through free baseball and softball programming.
“The organization really stepped up by funding and running Junior Giants,” Petersen said. “It was one of the smartest things the Fund and the Giants ever did.”
She also points to the creation of the Willie Mays Scholars program as a defining moment. Launched in 2021 in the wake of the civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder, the program represented a deliberate commitment to supporting Black youth in San Francisco.
Through college scholarships and ongoing academic support, Willie Mays Scholars creates a path for students to pursue success in high school and college while carrying forward Mays’ legacy for future generations.
The milestones reflect the approach Petersen has taken throughout her career: listen closely, build thoughtfully and remain focused on what will make the greatest difference for people.
Looking Around
When Petersen reflects on the women who have influenced her, she begins with her mother, sisters and close friends. She speaks warmly about early mentors like Thacher and longtime Giants Community Fund board member Isabelle Lemon, whose bold ideas and willingness to try something new left a lasting impression.
She also looks at the women working beside her today.
“It’s not always looking up,” Petersen said. “It’s looking around.”
For Petersen, inspiration can come from a new employee bringing fresh energy or a longtime colleague whose steady leadership has strengthened the organization for decades. She sees that same spirit throughout Momentum - the women’s employee resource group at the Giants – and across a Front Office that has changed considerably since she arrived in 1993.
“When I think of the Giants, I think of all of the men and women behind the scenes working together,” she said. “I see women stepping forward all the time in incredible ways.”
Her advice to women hoping to build careers in sports is to find ways to gain meaningful experience, even before the perfect opportunity arrives. Petersen says to volunteer, learn about the area that interests you and look for chances to demonstrate that you belong in the room.
“Whatever provides you with more experience and knowledge, just do it,” Petersen said. “Hopefully, it becomes the point that convinces somebody that you belong.”
“How Lucky I Am”
When asked what she would tell the young woman who joined the Giants in 1993, Petersen acknowledged that the years ahead would require hard work, unusual hours and plenty of late-night commutes home from the ballpark.
She would also remind her younger self to protect time for family and herself — a lesson Petersen said she’s had to learn later in her career.
Most importantly, she would tell her younger self to take it all in.
Petersen could not have imagined the people she would meet, the friendships she would form or the young lives she would help change. She could not have known that a position she once approached with curiosity would become the career of a lifetime.
“Anytime I say I’ve worked more than 30 years here, I can’t help but smile,” Petersen said. “How lucky I am to have found this job and to still be happy working in it.”
For a leader who has spent her career celebrating the accomplishments of others, the Alexis T. Busch Award gives us the opportunity to celebrate hers.