The OPTN Board is the governing body that oversees and participates in policy development for OPTN operations. The Board is responsible for oversight of organ allocation policies, OPTN membership criteria, and OPTN management and membership policies. All Board Directors must adhere to the OPTN Code of Conduct.

Serving as a Director on the OPTN Board requires at least 12 hours time commitment per month. Directors are expected to attend two multi-day meetings per year, as well as monthly meetings. This is a voluntary position.

Individuals will be ineligible for consideration if they currently serve on the OPTN Board, served on the OPTN Board in the last 10 years or are currently on the Transitional Nominating Committee (TNC); have financial, personal, business, or professional relationships with the OPTN or members of the OPTN Board outside of and beyond their primary role; are employed by or a subcontractor to current OPTN contractors; and are personally, or employed by an entity that is, pending criminal, serious ethics, or regulatory action.

Applicants will be screened for 1) Availability (i.e., at least 12 hours per month), 2) Alignment with Modernization, and 3) Conflicts of Interest (COIs). Following that step, TNC members will score applicants in various categories based on their position:

• Organ transplant professionals: Professional organ transplantation experience, ethics, finance, governance, logistics or operations experience.
• Individuals with lived organ transplant experience: Lived transplantation experience, ethics, finance, governance, logistics, or operations experience.
• Non-transplant professionals: Non-transplant professional experience, ethics, finance, governance, logistics or operations experience.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with some applicants invited to an interview with members of the TNC, after which the TNC will recommend a slate of candidates for approval by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. OPTN members will vote on the final slate of candidates later this summer.

The TNC, with input from HRSA, will finalize dates for the special election, publicly solicit candidates and develop a slate of candidates for a vote by OPTN members later in the spring. OPTN members will vote on the Board of Directors from that slate, adhering to the current Board configuration percentages. This process largely mirrors the current OPTN election process while taking steps to facilitate establishment of a new, independent Board of Directors.

The special election brings new providers, patients, and representatives of transplant hospitals and organ procurement organizations to the Board just as in previous elections. There will be a period where the current Board and new Board will overlap for continuity of operations and knowledge transfer.

The TNC will be temporary and transitional, specific to the circumstances of the special election held by the Secretary of HHS.

• Chair: General Janet Wolfenbarger (Ret. USAF), MS
  • Retired United States Air Force General
  • Member, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation
  • Member, Board of Directors, AECOM (an infrastructure firm)
  • Former Chair, Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services
  • Trustee, US Air Force Academy Falcon Foundation (2016-Present)
• Co-Chair: Pamela D. Paulk, MSW, MBA
  • Former President, Johns Hopkins Medicine International
  • Living kidney donor
• Andre Dick, MD
  • Surgeon-in-Chief, Seattle Children’s Hospital
• Colleen Jay, MD
  • Surgeon and Director, Living Donor Program, Wake Forest University
• Dominic Adorno, MS
  • President & CEO, DonorConnect
• Edward Hickey, JD
  • President, American Association of Kidney Patients
• Eric Gibney, MD
  • Nephrologist and Program Director, Piedmont Transplant Institute in Atlanta, GA
• Gena Johns, BSN
  • Program Manager, Kidney/Pancreas Transplant, University of Florida Shands Transplant Center in Gainesville, FL
• Lisa Lee, PhD, MA, MS
  • Former Executive Director, Presidential Bioethics Commission
  • Former Chief of Bioethics, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
• Lorrinda Gray-Davis
  • President, Transplant Recipients International Organization
  • Liver transplant recipient
• Margie Shaw, PhD, JD
  • Director, Clinical Ethics at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY
• Sean Kumer, MD
  • Surgeon, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President, University of Kansas Health System
• Yesenia Diaz, BS
  • Founder and General Contractor, Industry Grade Construction Group
  • Two-time kidney transplant recipient