Susan L. Hitchcock is a landscape historian and author. She was married to horticulturalist James Marshall Garner (1951?-2014) and has one son, James Clayton "Clay" Garner. Hitchcock received her first bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina in 1974 and her second bachelor's degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1980. She also completed a master's degree in Historic Preservation in 1997 from the University of Georgia. Hitchcock has worked as landscape historian for the National Park Service, Cultural Resources Division, Southeast Regional Office in Atlanta since 2000. She has authored numerous cultural landscape reports and conducts research and surveys. Hitchcock is a founding member of Georgia Historic Landscape Initiative and the Southern Garden History Society with whom she serves as a board member. She also serves on the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation board and the Cherokee Garden Library Acquisitions Committee at the Atlanta History Center.