Susan Hickman, PhD, is a clinical geropsychologist focused on optimizing the quality of life for older adults through improved decision-making and communication about treatment preferences. Her area of expertise is palliative care and advance care planning, and she is nationally recognized for her work to help ensure that patients’ end-of-life treatment preferences are known and honored as well as for her work translating research into policy.

A focus of Dr. Hickman’s research over the past 2 decades has been on studying the effect of the POLST: Portable Medical Orders model on the care of seriously ill older adults. She is a founding member of the National POLST Paradigm as well as former chair of the National POLST Research and Quality Assurance Committee. Her research findings have been used to support programs based on the POLST model across the country. In Indiana, she led the successful campaign to pass legislation authorizing the creation of the state’s version of the POLST form. Additionally, in 2023, she led the passage of the first major overhaul of the Indiana Health Care Consent Act in nearly 30 years.

Dr. Hickman has served as principal investigator as well as co-investigator on multiple externally funded projects related to advance care planning for older adults, primarily in the nursing facility setting. Most recently, she served as co-principal investigator on an R33 grant from the National Institute on Aging to pragmatically evaluate an advance care planning intervention for adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in nursing facilities (AG057463). She is co-principal investigator on a National Institute of Nursing Research R01 grant to create care planning process maps for different settings of care informed by health care professionals, patients, and family caregivers (NR020607). She is also a co-investigator and lead of the Methods, Measures, and Data Core for the NEXT STEPs Network, which is focused on advancing nursing home care through explanatory clinical trials.

Dr. Hickman brings extensive leadership experience to her role as KPWHRI’s Director of Investigative Science. From 2019 to 2025, she served as director of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research at the Regenstrief Institute — an organization focused on health systems science and health services research. She also served as interim president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute from 2022 to 2023.