After serving in prominent roles at Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University School of Nursing and the IU School of Medicine, Susan Hickman, PhD, will depart to join Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Dr. Hickman has been appointed as director of the Investigative Sciences Division, where she will provide strategic oversight and serve on the institute’s leadership team. Her last day with Regenstrief and IU will be September 19.
Dr. Hickman is a clinical geropsychologist dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for older adults by advancing decision-making and communication around treatment preferences. Her expertise lies in palliative care and advance care planning.
She is nationally recognized for her groundbreaking contributions to the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Program, which aims to ensure that patients’ end-of-life care preferences are clearly documented so they can be honored throughout the healthcare system. Over the past two decades, she has extensively studied the impact of this model on end-of-life care, with her research findings informing POLST programs nationwide. Additionally, she co-chaired the coalition that developed Indiana’s version of POLST, known as the Indiana POST form (Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment), which is now implemented statewide. She has been recognized twice as a Health Care Hero by the Indianapolis Business Journal for her policy work and education outreach that includes the Indiana POST as well as an overhaul of the Indiana Health Care Consent Act.
Dr. Hickman has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on multiple externally funded projects related to palliative care, the quality of life and care for nursing home patients, and end-of-life decision-making and its effects on clinicians, patients and their families. Projects have included studies funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the RRF Foundation.
During her 16-year tenure at Regenstrief and the IU School of Nursing, Dr. Hickman has been a Regenstrief affiliate and research scientist and, since 2019, she has served as the director of the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief. From June 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023, she simultaneously took on the much broader responsibilities as Regenstrief’s interim president and chief executive officer, providing leadership and strategic decision-making to the organization during a period of transition.
Dr. Hickman is a professor at the IU School of Nursing and holds the prestigious Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Professorship of Medicine at IU School of Medicine. She is also co-director of the IU Indianapolis Research in Palliative and End-of-Life Communication and Training (RESPECT) Signature Center and director of the Indiana Patient Preferences Coalition.
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