She served under Governor David Ige as Director of the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources for two terms, from 2015 to 2022, where she oversaw the work of eleven divisions, including Forestry and Wildlife, Aquatic Resources, Boating and Ocean Recreation, Conservation and Coastal Lands, State Parks, Historic Preservation, State Lands, the Bureau of Conveyances, Engineering, Conservation and Resource Enforcement, and the Commission on Water Resource Management. In this capacity she chaired the Hawaiʻi Board of Land and Natural Resources and the Commission on Water Resource Management; co-chaired the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Committee, the Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, and the Hawaiʻi Drought Council; and served on the Hawaiʻi Board of Agriculture and the Kahoʻolawe Island Reserve Commission.

Prior to her service at DLNR, Suzanne worked at The Nature Conservancy for 28 years, as Executive Director of the Hawaiʻi Program from 2001 to 2015, overseeing the protection and stewardship work in forest preserves and watershed partnerships, the start of TNC’s Hawai‘i marine conservation program and the protection of Palmyra Atoll; she served as TNC Asia/Pacific and Western Regional Counsel from 1987 to 2001, supporting conservation transactions and international conservation operations, including community-based marine conservation, around the western United States, Hawaiʻi, and the Pacific.

Case began her legal career as an Associate practicing real estate transactions at the law firm of Pettit & Martin in San Francisco from 1983 to 1987. Born in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, and raised in Hilo and Honolulu, she he was educated at Waiakea-Kai and Keaukaha Elementary Schools, Punahou School, Williams College and Stanford University (B.A. History), and University of California Hastings College of the Law (J.D.).