Woman of Influence: Dr. Susan Chambers

Dr. Susan Chambers lives a life that, from the outside, has until recent years looked a lot like a gilded fairy tale. She’s a beloved physician and the founder of a thriving women’s health clinic and hospital. She lives in a fabled mansion in one of Oklahoma City’s most beautiful historic neighborhoods. She married a wonderful man—a fellow physician she met in med school—raised three children, worked hard, volunteered in the community and traveled the world.   

And then, in 2023, it happened. Kyle Toal, her beloved husband of 35 years, died, and Chambers was thrust into uncharted waters, which threatened to take her under for a while and from which she is now thankfully beginning to surface. “You have to just lean into the losses and the sadness and the emotions that you don’t really want to feel, because if you don’t, then you don’t grow and you don’t get to renew and be better,” she says.  

After the initial shock, Chambers approached managing her profound grief in characteristic style: all-in. She’s simply not wired to do anything halfway. “I try to do yoga every day. I have a devotional time in the morning, and I have a prayer time. That’s not just in the morning, that's all day long some days,” she says. Movement and exercise have helped her cope. She rides her bike and incorporates Pilates classes into her already-busy schedule. “It’s been its own journey, of course, but through a lot of self-work and help from other people, I’m able to now find joy, and renew my commitment to enjoying life and enjoying what I do and staying in the moment and not worrying about the past and not worrying about the future,” she says.

As she found her way through her loss, Chambers continued to immerse herself in her medical practice of 30+ years (she’s delivered more than 8,000 babies!) and her community voluntarism. A defining characteristic of Dr. Susan Chambers is that if someone asks her for help, she will flat out say yes. Another? She does not do anything halfway. Nothing. Not a single thing. And a third? She’s got a great, lively sense of humor and zest for the kooky, which we’ll discuss more later. She credits her parents for her impeccable work ethic and ethos of giving back. “That was just something that they always did; they always gave back. They always were involved. We didn’t grow up with a lot of money, but [they were] certainly generous with their time, and certainly generous with their money to what extent they could be.”

Chambers grew up in Tulsa, where her mom taught English and journalism, and her dad was an accountant and businessman. Perhaps that’s where she inherited her entrepreneurial nature? She, at first, hesitates. “I guess so … we certainly started a couple of businesses 30-plus years ago that have succeeded, but I wouldn’t have called myself entrepreneurial at the time. In 1987, when we started this group, I didn’t know enough to be scared, even though it was very anxiety-provoking,” she says. “We were grateful to have good mentors to guide us down that path, and then we took the leap to start the hospital 10 years later.”  

That medical practice, Lakeside Doctors Gynecology & Obstetrics, and the hospital, Lakeside Women’s Hospital, treat thousands of Oklahoma women through every season of life. “I really like my work. I really, really like taking care of women. In August, I’ve been in private practice for 39 years. Of course, I started when I was 10,” she says, laughing. Her career has evolved over time. “I loved delivering babies when I did that. I love doing gynecologic surgery.”

She also loves getting to know her patients and their families over the years. “Saturday night I got to go to the wedding of a young man I delivered 30 years ago.” That she’s still a part of this family’s life, as she is with many of the women she sees, is fulfilling to her. “That really gives me great joy and satisfaction in my work,” she says.

Chambers is in it for the long haul professionally, personally and as a volunteer. In 2024, she became Chairman of the Board of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, as OKC marked a milestone 30th anniversary since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In a recent interview with The Oklahoman, she talks about her personal experience immediately after the bombing, working at one of the hastily erected medical tents around the bombing site. Reporter William C. Wertz asks if she was afraid. Her reply: “No, I don’t remember being afraid. It was a horrifying event, but it wasn’t fearful for us [as doctors treating people]. What I remember on the day of the bombing is that we weren’t sure at first what had happened. Two of my children were in school and I was worried about them. The phones were crazy, and you couldn’t just call.”

To mark the 30th anniversary, the Oklahoma City Memorial & Museum has launched a program called Journey of Hope. “We will be traveling to all 77 counties across Oklahoma, going to high schools where kids weren’t even born when the bombing happened and speaking to churches and other groups. It’s part of carrying our 30th anniversary message ‘A Day of Darkness ― Years of Light’ throughout the state,” Chambers told The Oklahoman.

Other volunteer work? “I’m on the board at Oklahoma City Repertory Theater, because every board needs a gynecologist on it, especially a theater group,” she deadpans. Chambers also gives of her time to St. Luke’s Methodist Church and World Neighbors, the nonprofit she’s been involved with the longest, close to 30 years. “I fell in love with it when I just first learned about World Neighbors, and then I started going on some of their journeys. You either love it and it gets under your skin, or it’s not your thing because it’s hard travel,” she says. World Neighbors is an international development organization that works to alleviate hunger, poverty and disease in the most isolated rural villages in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “As I say, World Neighbors works at the very end of the road, and then you take a left and keep going. And that’s where they work.”

Chambers has traveled to Indonesia, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Haiti, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Mali with World Neighbors. “Mali was amazing. That’s where Timbuktu is. I actually went to Timbuktu, got the T-shirt. That’s how poor that country is. There’s only one souvenir T-shirt you can buy, and it’s in Timbuktu … You can’t go to Mali now, it’s way too dangerous,” she says. 

Leisure travel for Chambers is also often adventurous. “Through the years, we’ve taken lots of bicycle trips and things like that. We hiked Mount Kilimanjaro once and did the Inca Trail a couple of times,” she says, and admits she’s also fine with just going to the beach. Frankly, she sounds less enthused about that sort of trip, quickly adding “That’s fine, too, but I do like doing stuff.” 

Remember earlier when Chambers’ kooky side was alluded to? ‘Witchy’ is more accurate. Her historic home happens to anchor a neighborhood, Crown Heights, that goes big at Halloween. And Chambers and her buddies play a pivotal role she calls ‘The Witches of Crown Heights,’ wherein they hang out, green-faced with a steaming cauldron, in full witch drag, passing out candy. Her work with City Rep makes more sense now, doesn’t it? The Witches have been at it for decades, and recently something genuinely magical happened. “This young man, in his 30s or so, brought us a scrapbook he had made of all the years that he had come as a kid, and now he was bringing his kids, and he gave it to us,” she says. Chambers is clearly delighted to have “terrified millions of children.” She’s kidding. “It’s just lots of fun, you know.”

This is a woman who is deeply and contentedly rooted in her community — through her career, her voluntarism, her home and her family. And we are happy to report that she’s slowly but surely getting her cackle back.