Susan Sheridan, M.I.M., M.B.A.

Co-Founder
Consumers Advancing Patient Safety

Susan Sheridan, M.I.M., M.B.A., is co-founder of Consumers Advancing Patient Safety, a non-profit organization that seeks a safe, compassionate and just health care system through proactive partnership between consumers and providers of care.

Sheridan became involved in patient safety after her family experienced two serious medical system failures. Her husband Pat died in 2002 after his diagnosis of spinal cancer failed to be communicated. Their seven-year-old son Cal suffered kernicterus, a brain injury characterized by cerebral palsy and other associated neurological deficits, caused by the failure to treat his neonatal jaundice. Sheridan is co-founder and past president of Parents of Infants and Children with Kernicterus (PICK), which works in partnership with private and public health agencies to eradicate kernicterus by 2006. PICK partnered with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations for the April 2001 release of the Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert: Kernicterus threatens healthy newborns. Sheridan is a member of the Joint Commission's Tort Resolution and Injury Prevention Roundtable.

Sheridan frequently speaks on patient safety and legal reform at national and international events, and edits a regular column on consumer issues in the journal Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare. She is the founder of Jumpstart, a comprehensive immersion program for children with disabilities in Boise, Idaho. Prior to 1992, Sheridan was manager and vice president of the International Trade Finance Department at First City Texas Bank in Dallas. She and her husband were Peace Corps Volunteers in Ecuador from 1987 to 1989.

Sheridan holds dual master's degrees in International Management and Business Administration from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Phoenix. She earned her bachelor's degrees in Economics and Spanish from Albion College in Albion, Michigan.