Susan Hassmiller, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., is the  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing, where she is tasked with shaping and leading the Foundation’s strategies to address the nurse and nurse faculty shortages in an effort to create a higher quality of patient care in the United States. Drawn to the Foundation’s “organizational advocacy for the less fortunate and underserved,” Hassmiller is helping to assure that RWJF's commitments in nursing have a broad and lasting national impact. She is also the Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine, an effort that will identify new solutions for nursing in areas of recruitment, education, retention and new technologies; in the delivery of nursing services in a variety of care settings; and in the context of the entire health care workforce.  As health care reform progresses, the nursing profession must be at the table armed with these solutions, playing a central part in the reform process. 

Hassmiller, who joined RWJF in 1997, recently served a six-year term as a member of the National Board of Governors for the American Red Cross, serving in the role of chair of the Disaster and Chapter Services Committee. Citing Clara Barton’s influence in founding the American Red Cross, Hassmiller has been a volunteer for the organization since college and has been involved in Red Cross disaster relief efforts in the United States and abroad, including tornadoes in the Midwest, Hurricane Andrew, September 11th, the 2004 Florida hurricanes and Katrina, and the tsunami in Indonesia. She is currently serving on the Red Cross national nursing advisory committee, and the board of the Central New Jersey Red Cross and is the immediate past chair of the national 9/11 Recovery Program.

Previously, Hassmiller was with the Health Resources and Services Administration, where she was the executive director of the U.S. Public Health Service Primary Care Policy Fellowship and worked on other national and international primary care initiatives. She also has worked in public health settings at the local and state level and taught public health nursing at the University of Nebraska and George Mason University in Virginia.

Hassmiller is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of The Joint Commission Nursing Advisory Council and the New York Academy of Medicine. She received a Ph.D. in nursing administration and health policy from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., master’s degrees in health education from Florida State University and community health nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Florida State University. She is distinguished alum for George Mason University, University of Nebraska Medical Center and Broward College; is the 2008 John P. McGovern Award recipient from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing; 2009 recipient of the Florida Association of Community Colleges Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2009 Community Service Award from George Washington University. Sue is also the 2009 recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor given to a nurse by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Hassmiller and her husband, Robert Hassmiller, Ph.D., CEO of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services, live in Princeton Junction, N.J., and enjoy biking, hiking, dance, and long walks with their dogs, Jake and Marmaduke. They have two adult children.

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