Susan Heichert is the former Chief Information Officer at Allina Health and is currently consulting in Information Technology strategy and leadership as President of the Cedar Isles Organization, LLC. She began her professional career in pediatrics/NICU nursing, practicing in Texas and Minnesota, after earning a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Her M.A. is from the University of Minnesota. Previous positions include working with a start-up IT company to develop and implement an early bedside nursing application, Director of Nursing Informatics at St. John’s Health System in Detroit, consulting, and at Children’s Minnesota as part of the Cerner implementation.
Susan was part of the team that implemented Epic at Allina Health, and Allina was honored to earn the HIMSS Davies Organizational Award for that initiative in 2007. She moved into the CIO role, responsible for Information Technology, Health Information Management, Clinical Engineering, and Informatics. She has served in other interim leadership roles including VP for Care Management and SVP HR/CHRO. Susan is a HIMSS fellow and has been active with the MN Chapter of HIMSS as well as the national HIMSS organization since the ‘90s, serving in a variety of positions and on numerous committees as well as contributing to HIMSS publications. Additionally, she is a member of CHIME, serving on various CHIME committees. She was appointed to the MN State e-Health committee and served until 2016.
Susan has been recognized as a MN Top 10 CIO of the Year by the Minneapolis Business Journal, Top 10 Women Powerhouses in Health IT and Top Women Dynamos in Health IT by HealthCare IT News, among other awards. She has served as a Community Faculty member for Metropolitan State University (St. Paul, MN) and on the board of Senior Community Services, as well as volunteering with a variety of community groups.
