Official Bio

Susan Hassmiller is a certified executive leadership coach for healthcare leaders. An international nurse leader, she has dedicated her career to advancing health equity and improving health through nursing.

She was appointed to the National Academy of Medicine as the Senior Scholar-in-Residence and Advisor to the President on Nursing to help shape the study, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, a report that is being used worldwide.

She has served the American Red Cross for over 40 years, from the frontlines as a disaster nurse to the highest-level policy making tables.

Sue is the 2009 recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor given to a nurse by the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 2021, she was recognized as a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing, the Academy’s highest designation for extraordinary nurse leaders.

Sue is married to Dr. Lewis Sandy, a physician executive with UnitedHealth Group. They live in Cary, North Carolina.

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Biosketch

Dr. Susan Hassmiller is a national leader in nursing, health equity and leadership development.  She has devoted her career to advancing and advocating for the nursing profession, improving population health and achieving health equity. During her 25 year career with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), she served as the Senior Adviser for Nursing for RWJF and the Senior Scholar-In-Residence/Senior Adviser to the President at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). She helped lead both landmark reports at NAM on the Future of Nursing, including the 2010 Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and the latest report, The Future of Nursing, 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.  She also established and served as Director the ongoing Future of Nursing, Campaign for Action, a national 50 state collaborative in collaboration with AARP and the AARP Foundation to transform health and health care through nursing to build a healthier America. 

Hassmiller has held national leadership positions in the nation’s most prominent health care organizations. She served on the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross, is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, where she holds the Living Legend status, and sits on other advisory committees and boards, including the Hackensack Meridian Health System, UnitedHealth Group, Carrier Clinic, the Nurses on Boards Coalition, and the University of North Carolina School of Nursing. She is the recipient of many awards and four honorary doctorates, but most notably the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor given to a nurse by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In addition to her career in philanthropy, Hassmiller has also held roles as a front line and public health nurse and has worked in public health settings at the local, state and national levels.  She taught community health nursing at the University of Nebraska and George Mason University.

She now serves as a Hudson/ICF certified Executive/Leadership Coach and founder/principal of Sulu Coaching and consulting (www.sulucoaching.com) with a practice focused on serving health care leaders. She lives in Cary, North Carolina with her husband and cofounder of Sulu coaching, and most importantly lives 15 minutes from her extraordinary grandchildren. 

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