Susan Poffenbarger (April 11, 1940 - January 12, 2025) was an American artist who was born and raised in Charleston. Her paintings and pastels on paper were inspired by the natural beauty of West Virginia. Despite her love for art, she initially studied history at West Virginia University, where she met her husband of 62 years, lawyer John T. Poffenbarger.

Poffenbarger's passion for art was awakened when her mother bought her art lessons to help her work through postpartum depression after the birth of her first child. These lessons ignited her artistic fire, and she never stopped painting, choosing to further her art education with Hank Keeling at the University of Charleston. She continued her art studies at Marshall University; The New York Studio for Drawing, Painting and Sculpture; and the Art Students League in New York, as well as many workshops with notable artists. She studied with Richard Treaster, Phillip Pearlstein, Janet Fish, Wolf Khan, and Nell Blaine. During these years, she gave birth to three more children. The tragically premature death of her first-born, Matthew, in 1986 at 22 years of age was devastating for the family-oriented woman and remained with her for the rest of her life.

Poffenbarger subsequently blazed trails for female artists in the Mountain State. In 1997, she became the first West Virginia woman ever to receive a federal commission for art for two paintings at the IRS National Computing Center in Martinsburg. She received a second commission in 2003 for artwork at the Federal Courthouse Annex in Wheeling. She presented her work at many invitational and juried exhibitions, including the annual West Virginia Juried Exhibition, where she won the Governor’s Award four times, and 12 Allied Artists awards. She was featured in numerous public and private collections like the Clay Center Juliet Museum of Art, Huntington Museum of Art, and University of Charleston.

Poffenbarger volunteered at Kanawha County Schools for years, teaching art at all levels. She also taught gifted art for Putnam County Schools for seven years. She believed in everyone’s inner artist and strived to bring that out through teaching.

Susan Poffenbarger’s community work included serving on the West Virginia Commission for the Arts, the board of directors and emeritus board at the University of Charleston, and the board of The Library Foundation of Kanawha County. She died at her home in Charleston.