Susan Bence
Environmental ReporterSusan Bence entered broadcasting in an untraditional way. After years of avid public radio listening, Susan returned to school and earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She interned for WUWM News and worked with the Lake Effect team, before being hired full-time as a WUWM News reporter / producer.
Susan is now WUWM's Environmental Reporter, the station's first. Her work has been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club, the Northwest Broadcast News Association, and the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.
Susan worked with Prevent Blindness Wisconsin for 20 years, studied foreign languages at UWM, and loves to travel.
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Pros and cons continue to swirl around data centers — some in the planning stages, others already in motion in Wisconsin. A We Energies proposal is adding fuel to the fire. It would create a new energy rate for so-called “very large” customers, like data centers. -
Grasslyn Manor, a neighborhood within Milwaukee’s Sherman Park, has been grappling with flooded basements for decades. Despite the increasingly erratic weather climate change doles out, its residents are determined to curb their flooding problem. -
A judge ruled Wednesday that a Shorewood man was guilty of trespassing when he walked along the Lake Michigan beyond the public beach last summer. The man says he'll appeal the decision. -
Last weekend, dangerously low temperatures hit the Milwaukee area. Shelters opened their doors and stretched their capacity to assist as many residents as possible, including Cathedral Center in downtown Milwaukee. -
The National Weather Service issued an “extreme cold watch" for southern Wisconsin from Jan. 22-24. Milwaukee-based meteorologist Paul Roebber explains what's causing the bitter cold. -
After a decade of co-leading Milwaukee Water Commons, Brenda Coley is retiring. -
The Trump administration wants to make it easier for infrastructure and energy projects to get off the ground. It sees dismantling a foundational environmental law called NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) as one way to make that happen. -
Wisconsin writer Jerry Apps died Dec. 23, 2025, at the age of 91. Listen to Apps' conversation with WUWM's Susan Bence from 2017. -
We revisit a few of the environmental change-makers we met in 2025. In big and small ways, they’re trying to make a difference in their Wisconsin communities. -
A small stretch of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan shoreline has been getting a lot of attention lately. But debates over private vs. public rights on the state's waterways have been going on for over a century.
