Susan Bauer-Wu

Susan Bauer-Wu integrates her experience as a clinician, end-of-life doula, contemplative researcher, and Buddhist practitioner. From 2015 through 2023, Susan served as president of the Mind & Life Institute, an organization co-founded by the Dalai Lama.

Prior to joining Mind & Life, she was the Kluge Professor in Contemplative End-of-Life Care and director of the Compassionate Care Initiative at the University of Virginia, with dual faculty appointments in Nursing and Religious Studies.

Susan began her career as an oncology, psych/mental health, and palliative care/hospice nurse, and later received a PhD in psychoneuroimmunology at Rush University in Chicago and post-doctoral training in psycho-oncology and behavioral medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock/Dartmouth Medical School. In 2021, Mindful recognized her as one of “the most powerful women in the mindfulness movement.”

She is the author of A Future We Can Love: How to Reverse the Climate Crisis through the Power of Our Hearts and Minds (Shambhala, 2023), and Leaves Falling Gently: Living Fully with Serious Illness through Mindfulness, Compassion, & Connectedness (Shambhala, 2025).

Currently, Susan guides individuals and groups in purpose-full living and dying in her work with Coming to Life and as a volunteer end-of-life doula at a local hospice in Charlottesville, Virginia.