Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN, is a nationally and globally respected leader and author in health care and contemplative science.
From 2015 through 2023, Susan served as the president of the Mind & Life Institute, an organization co-founded by the Dalai Lama to bring science and contemplative wisdom together to better understand the mind, foster dialogue, and create positive change in the world. An NIH-funded clinical scientist (who received one of the first NIH R01 grants to study meditation in 2005), Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar, and early teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction (completed MBSR teacher clinical practicum training in 1999), Susan has held leadership positions and/or taught at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Emory University, and the University of Virginia (UVA). At UVA, she was an endowed professor in contemplative end-of-life care and director of the Compassionate Care Initiative with dual faculty appointments in Nursing and Religious Studies.
Susan was also a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow and served as president and on the board of the professional society, Society for Integrative Oncology. In 2021, she was recognized as one of ten of “the most powerful women in the mindfulness movement” by Mindful.
Early in her career she was an oncology, psych-mental health, and palliative care and hospice nurse. Informed by her clinical practice, Susan completed PhD studies in psychoneuroimmunology at Rush University in Chicago (funded by an NIH training grant), followed by post-doctoral training in psycho-oncology and behavioral medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. Susan’s research throughout her training focused on personal meaning in life and its correlates on measures of immune function and well-being.
Her heart work/service over the last 25+ years has been teaching and facilitating retreats, workshops, and groups—blending mindfulness and other contemplative practices, creative and expressive therapies, and nature connection, especially for people living with serious illness and their loved ones as well as health care professionals and students, which she has done throughout the United States and internationally. She also counsels individuals and groups in navigating aging, illness, and dying through Coming-to-Life (coming-to-life.com) and volunteers as an end-of-life doula with Hospice of the Piedmont.
Susan is the author of two books. Leaves Falling Gently: Living Fully with Serious Illness through Mindfulness, Compassion, & Connectedness – A Guide for Patients & Loved Ones was refreshed and expanded, and published in 2025 (Shambhala Publications). Inspired by a public conversation between the Dalai Lama and Greta Thunberg, A Future We Can Love (Shambhala, 2023) is “medicine for despair and anxiety about climate change,” that draws parallels between grief and love for the planet and facing one’s own mortality.
Susan’s lifelong interest in spirituality has drawn her to explore different wisdom and faith traditions. This includes being a student and practitioner of Buddhist studies and meditation for over three decades. Susan finds meaning in her precious relationships as a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend, and in serving as a volunteer, board member, consultant, and advisor to values-aligned organizations and businesses. She lives in central Virginia and is an avid gardener and hiker who is deeply nourished by authentic personal connections, trees, and animals.