Alumni Profile: Susan Niermeyer, MD’79, MPH
Global advocate for infants
Susan Niermeyer, MD’79, MPH, has had two careers, running simultaneously. They both, at their core, focus on how to best care for newborns.
A full-time neonatologist doing clinical care, research and education at the University of Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado for more than four decades, Niermeyer’s areas of expertise include neonatal resuscitation, cardiopulmonary physiology in infancy, and global neonatal survival.
She has had critical roles in several initiatives, including co-chairing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Neonatal Resuscitation Program Steering Committee and serving as a volunteer for evidence evaluation and guidelines development in neonatal resuscitation.
Niermeyer, who retired and became professor emerita at the University of Colorado in 2022, also has been intensively involved in global newborn health, working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Niermeyer began her outreach work closer to home, making sure neonatal units in smaller communities in rural Colorado, Montana and Wyoming had access to the best practices to care for newborns.
That led to her work with the AAP, where she was active in developing materials for the Neonatal Resuscitation Program and teaching the program in other countries. She was editor-in-chief for the development of Helping Babies Breathe, an AAP program to prepare health workers in resource-limited settings with the skills to provide lifesaving care to newborns. This led to the development of the 2024 WHO Essential Newborn Care Course 2nd Edition.
Niermeyer’s global outreach has taken her all over the world, to China, Tibet, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mexico, and many countries in Central and South America as well as Africa.
“There’s a huge need in neonatology for people who have direct clinical experience, who have a public health background, and can put that together in educational programs. I feel like my clinical experience prepared me to help make these educational materials for use in low- and middle-income countries.
Niermeyer and three classmates co-chaired their class’s October Reunion celebration. They enjoyed reminiscing about their days at VUSM as they planned and contacted classmates.
One experience she’ll never forget is working in the lab of the late Mildred Stahlman, MD, and riding to rural Tennessee in the mobile “Angel” neonatal intensive care unit.
“I recall riding over dirt roads to pick up a baby, then riding back over those same dirt roads, kneeling beside the isolette to push some packed red cells,” she said, adding that Stahlman, who died in 2024, had a huge impact on her career. “She was a force, and everybody she touched carries a little bit of her with them.” n