Richmond, Va. – Members of the national organ donation and transplantation community have elected 25 members to the OPTN/UNOS board of directors, including a new president, vice-president/president-elect, vice president of patient and donor affairs and secretary. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) serves as the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under federal contract.
All board members are uncompensated volunteers and serve terms ranging from one to three years, depending on the office to which they are elected. Their terms of service begin on July 1, 2014.
Carl L. Berg, M.D., currently the Vice President/President-Elect, will assume the presidency. He is medical director of abdominal transplantation and professor of medicine at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C.
Betsy J. Walsh, J.D., M.P.H., becomes the first Vice President/President-Elect in the organization’s history who is neither a transplant physician or surgeon nor an executive of an organ procurement organization. She is vice president and deputy general counsel for Novant Health, Inc., in Charlotte, N.C. She became a living kidney donor in 1995. She has served the OPTN and UNOS in a variety of roles, including a previous term on its board.
Suzanne L. Conrad, RN, M.S.H.A., will serve an additional term as Vice President of Patient and Donor Affairs. She is chief executive officer of Iowa Donor Network and is a living kidney donor.
Maryl R. Johnson, M.D., will become the organization’s Secretary. She is a heart failure and transplant cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.
Other newly elected members are as follows:
Immediate Past President – Kenneth A. Andreoni, M.D., Shands Hospital at University of Florida
Region 1 Councillor – Heung Bae Kim, M.D., Boston Children’s Hospital
Region 3 Councillor – Charles E. Wright, M.D., LifeLink of Florida
Region 4 Councillor – W. Kenneth Washburn, M.D., University Hospital San Antonio
Region 5 Councillor – Richard V. Perez, M.D., UC Davis Medical Center
Region 6 Councillor – Viken Douzdjian, M.D., Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center
Region 7 Councillor – Julie K. Heimbach, M.D., Mayo Clinic, Rochester
Region 9 Councillor – Lloyd E. Ratner, M.D., NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center
Thoracic Organ Transplantation Representative – A. Michael Borkon, M.D., Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City
At Large Physician/Surgeon Representatives:
Stuart M. Flechner, M.D., Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Ruth A. McDonald, M.D., Seattle Children’s Hospital
At Large Organ Procurement Organization Representative – Kevin J. O’Connor, M.S., P.A., Life Center Northwest
At Large Representative – Mary Amanda Dew, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Medical/Scientific Representatives:
Yolanda T. Becker, M.D., University of Chicago Medical Center
Mitchell L. Henry, M.D., Ohio State University Medical Center
Histocompatibility Representative – Malek Kamoun, M.D., Ph.D., Immunology Laboratory, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
OPO Representative – G. Kent Holloway, M.S.F., Lifeline of Ohio
Transplant Coordinator Representative – Carrie C. Lindower, RN, M.B.A., CCTC, CPTC, Stony Brook University Hospital
Patient and Donor Affairs and Voluntary Health Organization Representatives:
Trine Engebretsen, M.S., M.D.
Bradley Kornfeld, J.D.
Kenyon W. Murphy, J.D.
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) serves as the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) by contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Division of Transplantation. The OPTN brings together medical professionals, transplant recipients and donor families to develop national organ transplantation policy.
