Gift of Life Donor Program Names New Officers and Members to Governing and Medical Advisory and Policy Boards

PHILADELPHIA, April 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Gift of Life Donor Program has announced the addition of new officers and members to its Governing and Medical Advisory and Policy Boards to help guide the organization's operations. Gift of Life is the region's non-profit, federally designated organ procurement organization (OPO) serving the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

Gift of Life's board members come from varied backgrounds, including hospital administration, transplant surgery, critical care medicine, business, science and community activism. Working together, they will oversee and help direct the organization's strategic and operational initiatives.

The following Governing Board members were named as officers:

• Glen D. Moffett, Esq., Chair.  Mr. Moffett is Vice President and General Counsel of WellSpan Health
• Gerard J. Fulda, MD, Vice Chair. Dr. Fulda is Chief of Surgical Critical Care and Director of Surgical Research at Christiana Care Health System
• Sean Dukes, Treasurer and Secretary.  Mr. Dukes is Director of Systems Engineering at Lockheed Martin and a heart transplant recipient
• Clyde F. Barker, MD, Immediate Past Chair.  Dr. Barker is Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and pioneering transplant surgeon

New members joining the Governing Board this year include David A. Pierson, Ph.D., President of The Pierson Group in Philadelphia, PA, and a donor family member; Laurene Cianfrani, Senior Director of Hospital Relations Management for the Penn-Jersey Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services and Radi F. Zaki, MD, Chairman of the Division of Transplantation at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.

Returning board members include Meg McGoldrick, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Abington Memorial Hospital; and Zakiyah Kadry, MD, Chief of the Division of Transplantation at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.  Gift of Life Donor Program President and CEO Howard M. Nathan also serves as a voting member of the Governing Board.

In addition to its Governing Board, Gift of Life also announced new officers and members to its Medical Advisory and Policy Board (MAPB). Board members provide expertise and guidance to Gift of Life in recommending policy on a variety of initiatives related to increasing donation opportunities and enhancing relationships with hospital partners. 

Leading the MAPB are Chair Peter Abt, MD, Chief of Kidney Transplantation at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a liver and kidney transplant surgeon at Penn Transplant Institute; and Vice Chair Jennifer Axelband, DO, Associate Medical Director of Medical Critical Care Education at St. Luke's University Health Network.

Re-elected members of the MAPB are Barbara Wadsworth, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, Main Line Health; and David Reich, MD, Chief, Division of Multi-Organ Transplantation and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery, Hahnemann University Hospital.

New members joining the MAPB include Ryan R. Davies, MD, Cardiothoracic Transplant Surgeon at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children; Kamran Khanmoradi, MD, Section Chief of Pancreas Transplantation, Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia; Cosme Manzarbeitia, MD, Chief of Transplant and Director of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Crozer-Chester Medical Center; R. Ali Shah, MD, Assistant Professor of the Division of Transplantation, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center; Warren R. Maley, MD, Director of Live Donor Liver Transplant Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; Margaret Belfield, Chief Operating Officer, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center; Stuart H. Fine, former President and CEO, Grand View Hospital; Lisa Schieffert, Director of Health Policy, Delaware Healthcare Association; Matthew D. Vibbert, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery and Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; Beth Colombe, PhD, Director of Immunogenetics and Tissue Typing, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; and Luis Torres, liver recipient and a member of the Pennsylvania Organ Donation Advisory Committee.

"We are pleased to welcome our new Governing Board and Medical Advisory and Policy Board officers and members," said Howard M. Nathan, Gift of Life's President and CEO. "With their understanding of donation and wealth of experience in guiding public service organizations such as ours, we look forward to the valuable contributions they will make to Gift of Life's on-going advancement of donation and transplantation. We are grateful for their expertise and continued service to Gift of Life Donor Program." 

Gift of Life Donor Program is the non-profit, federally designated organ and tissue transplant network serving the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. For 39 years, Gift of Life has coordinated more than 35,000 organ transplants, along with more than an estimated 500,000 tissue transplants. For more information on organ and tissue donation, please call Gift of Life at 1-800-DONORS-1 (1-800-366-6771) or visit at www.donors1.org.

SOURCE Gift of Life Donor Program