Susan M. Skillman, MS, is the Senior Deputy Director of the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies, Investigator with the Collaborative for Rural Primary Care, Research, Education, and Practice (RuralPREP) and Investigator with the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center. Recent research includes examinations of the nation's rural nurse and nurse practitioner workforce; rural health information technology workforce needs; contributions of community colleges to the health workforce; issues affecting access to home health care services in rural communities; medical assistant apprenticeship programs across the U.S., and the workforce needed to integrate behavioral health and primary care. She recently directed astatewide assessment of Washington State's behavioral health workforce supply and demand. She also developed and is implementing a program to assess emerging health workforce demand in Washington State - the Health Workforce Sentinel Network. Other recent work includes contracts with the National Governors Association to provide health workforce planning assistance to states, and analyses of the physician workforce in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (the WWAMI states). Ms. Skillman is on the Advisory Board for the Washington State Center of Excellence in Allied Health, was recently chair of the U.S. Delegation to the International Health Workforce Collaborative, and has been on the planning committees for several national and regional conferences. Prior to her current position, Ms. Skillman was a research project director at the University of Washington's Department of Health Services from 1989-99 and worked as a research projects director and coordinator of research development at the Center for Health Studies at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound from 1981-88. She received her Bachelor's degree from Whitman College and her Masters degree from Washington State University.