A published expert in her field, Dr. Von Essen has over 35 years of experience as a pulmonologist. She has served as a leader in medicine through her work as a Professor of Internal Medicine and Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She worked on various committees locally and nationally for the betterment of healthcare and has conducted research extensively in Pulmonary Medicine as well as Environmental and Occupational Health.

Dr. Susanna Von Essen grew up on a farm in northeast Nebraska, near the town of Pender. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a Regents Scholar. Her interest in public health developed during the time that she took a human parasitology class. She went on to study parasitology for a year in Germany as a Fulbright scholar. She received her Doctor of Medicine from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She completed her Internal Medicine residency and her Pulmonary fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, after which she joined the faculty there. She then received her Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Occupational Medicine from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Unique cases Dr. Von Essen can address include the following: disorders related to production agriculture and food processing; long COVID; inhalation injury from hydrogen sulfide, chlorine, ammonia and other toxic substances; mold and other indoor air-related exposures including carbon monoxide; and disease from inhalation of mineral dusts such as asbestos and silica.