Peter Y. Sussman is a retired journalist and author. He was an editor at the San Francisco Chronicle for 30 years. His first book was Committing Journalism: The Prison Writings of Red Hog (W.W. Norton), co-authored with prison writer Dannie M. Martin. He subsequently edited Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford (Knopf). He has won numerous local and national journalism awards, most of them for his First Amendment and journalism ethics advocacy.

In retirement, Sussman has worked with several nonprofit organizations in addition to TheCIL. He serves as the journalism advisor for Street Spirit, the local homeless newspaper, and is on the Human Rights Defense Center board. He has become a passionate photographer in recent years and is active in several community groups. TheCIL is the first disability organization with which he has become involved since he became disabled late in life.

Sussman has lived in Berkeley for more than 55 years and is married to retired community healthcare executive and consultant Patrica Carson Sussman. He is the father of three grown daughters and the proud grandfather of seven wunderkinder.