Professor Sue Amendolara was born in Youngstown, Ohio. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Jewelry Design/Metalsmithing from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana in 1988 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1985. She has been teaching Jewelry Design/Metalsmithing at PennWest Edinboro since 1991 and served as president of the Society of North American Goldsmiths from 2011-2014.

Her metalwork has been exhibited regionally and nationally in galleries and museums including the American Craft Museum, New York, NY, The National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, TN and the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA. Her work has been included in international exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland and Japan. Publications of her work include American Craft, Metalsmith, Ornament and Lapidary Journal. She has been the recipient of three Individual Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1994, 1999, and 2003) and a Mid-Atlantic/NEA Regional Fellowship (1995). Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, the Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, Ohio, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. and the White House Collection of American Crafts, Washington D.C.