Dr. Susan D. Block is the Director  of the  Serious Illness Care Program at Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health care innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She served as the Founding Chair of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Founding Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care.

Dr. Block received her AB from Stanford University, her MD from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and completed residencies in both internal medicine and psychiatry at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.  She is board-certified in both fields.  Dr. Block has been a national leader in the development of the field of palliative medicine, has led major innovative educational and quality improvement projects in a variety of areas, is known internationally as an expert in medical education, faculty development, and health system change, and has contributed to research in medical education, palliative care, psycho-oncology, and health system change . 

She is the author of over 200 publications and has won numerous awards for education, research and leadership.