Susan Hedlund

Susan Hedlund, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW has been a social worker in healthcare for more than thirty years, working with individuals and families facing life-threatening illness and loss. She joined the Biller Family Foundation after serving as director of patient and family services at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, where she built and led psychosocial support and wellness programs for people with cancer.

She has been an associate professor at the OHSU School of Medicine and at Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work, and has taught in the palliative care certificate program at the University of Washington. A past president of the Association of Oncology Social Work, she received its Leadership in Oncology Social Work Award and the American Cancer Society's national Quality of Life Award, and was a Cambia Foundation Sojourns Award recipient.

She is the lead editor of Oxford University Press's Oncology and Palliative Social Work and publishes widely on coping with illness, end-of-life issues and loss. Much of her teaching now focuses on professional caregivers — resilience, grief, burnout and moral distress — and she serves as the mental health provider on Oregon's Disaster Medical Assistance Team.