Previous Directors

Susan B. Shurin, M.D., was deputy director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As deputy director, Dr. Shurin represented the NHLBI in a wide variety of activities across the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Shurin joined the NHLBI as deputy director in February 2006, coming from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In her role as deputy director, Dr. Shurin has been involved in multiple intramural and extramural activities of the NHLBI and responsible for oversight of the Institute's clinical research portfolio. In October 2009, Dr. Shurin assumed the role of acting director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) while continuing to serve as the deputy director of NHLBI. 

In December 2009, Dr. Shurin was named acting director of the NHLBI and served in this role until August 2012. As acting director, she oversaw an extensive national research portfolio with an annual budget of approximately $3 billion. Through the support of research from bench to bedside, Dr. Shurin led the NHLBI's effort to transform new scientific knowledge into tangible improvements in health. As part of the NIH's global commitment, Dr. Shurin oversees the NHLBI's Global Health Initiative, which includes a network of Collaborating Centers of Excellence in low- and middle-income countries, focused on building sustainable programs to combat chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases. In November 2011, Dr. Shurin was elected chair of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), of which the NHLBI is a founding member. During her two-year term, the GACD is establishing working groups to focus on disease areas, engaging other NIH institutes, and overseeing the first GACD RFA, "Reducing the Impact of Hypertension in Low and Middle Income Countries."

Before joining the NHLBI, Dr. Shurin was Professor of Pediatrics and Oncology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio; Director of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital; Director of Pediatric Oncology at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Vice President and Secretary of the Corporation at Case Western Reserve University.  

Dr. Shurin received her education and medical training at Harvard University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her laboratory research focused on the physiology of phagocyte function, recognition and killing of pathogens; mechanisms of hemolysis, red blood cell destruction; and iron overload, a serious chronic condition in which the body absorbs too much iron leading to a buildup in organ tissues.

She has been active in clinical research in many aspects of pediatric hematology-oncology, including participation in the Children's Cancer Group (CCG), now the Children's Oncology Group, as well as multiple studies in sickle cell disease and hemostasis. She also served on the Executive Committee of the CCG and founded and chaired the CCG Bioethics Committee.

Among other leadership efforts, Dr. Shurin served on multiple NIH advisory panels. She has been on the boards or in leadership positions of numerous local and national professional organizations, including the American Board of Pediatrics. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics; the American Society of Hematology; the American Society of Pediatric Hematology‐Oncology; and the American Pediatric Society, where she is currently a member of the APS Council.

Dr. Shurin followed in the footsteps of two celebrated family pediatrician role models. Her maternal grandfather, Park Jerauld White, M.D., was a distinguished pediatrician practicing in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a social activist and advocate for the interests and needs of children. Her great-aunt, Katherine Bain, M.D., practiced with Dr. White before joining Martha Elliott, M.D., in 1941 at the Children's Bureau (now the Office of Maternal and Child Health at the Health Resources and Services Administration).