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Special Election

Per the HRSA OPTN Board of Directors Designation Agreement, the Secretary of Health and Human Services may hold a special election for the OPTN Board of Directors when the Secretary determines that doing so is in the best interest of OPTN, and the organization designated to serve as the OPTN Board of Directors shall abide by the terms and results of such a special election and ensure a smooth and efficient transition to the new Board.

National Election timeline and how to participate

OPTN members with voting privileges will be able to vote virtually for candidates for the national slate between 8 a.m. ET on May 27, 2025, and 11:59 p.m. ET on June 2, 2025. These OPTN members will receive an email on May 27, 2025, with instructions on how to cast their vote. A separate ballot question for Associate Regional Councillors will be included in the regional section of the national ballot. Personal statements for Board candidates and Associate Regional Councillor candidates will be posted ahead of time.

In the regional election, voting representatives from each region were invited to vote for their region’s representative. The following applicants received the most votes in the recent Regional Election held from May 2, 2025, through May 6, 2025, and will appear uncontested on the national ballot:

  • Region 1 Councillor: Nahel Elias, MD, Medical Director for Quality, Division of Transplantation, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Region 2 Councillor: Kenneth Chavin, MD, MBA, PhD, Director of Abdominal Organ Transplant, Temple University Health System
  • Region 3 Councillor: Ari Cohen, MD, MBA, Director, Ochsner Transplant Institute, and Director of Transplant Research and Surgical Director, Liver Transplant Section, Ochsner Health System
  • Region 4 Councillor: Ryan Davies, MD, Professor, Clinical Director of Pediatric Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Chief (Interim) Pediatric Solid Organ Transplantation, UT Southwestern Medical Center/Children's Medical Center
  • Region 5 Councillor: Andrew Courtwright, MD, PhD, Transplant Pulmonologist, University of Utah Hospital
  • Region 6 Councillor: Gina-Marie Barletta, MD, Medical Director, Pediatric Kidney Transplantation, and Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Oregon Health and Science University
  • Region 7 Councillor: Reynold Lopez-Soler, MD, PhD, Section Chief and Program Director of Renal Transplant Program, Edward Hines Jr. VA Medical Center
  • Region 8 Councillor: Mark Wakefield, MD, Director and Primary Surgeon of Renal Transplant Program, University of Missouri Health Care
  • Region 9 Councillor: Meelie DebRoy, MD, Section Chief, Kidney Transplant, Department of Surgery, Westchester Medical Center
  • Region 10 Councillor: John Magee, MD, Attending Surgeon, Division of Transplantation, Jeremiah & Claire Turcotte Professor of Transplantation Surgery, University of Michigan Health Systems
  • Region 11 Councillor: Vincent Casingal, MD, Chief Division of Abdominal Transplant and Surgical Director Adult and Pediatric Kidney Transplant, Atrium Health-Carolinas Medical Center

Please submit questions to OPTNBoardSupport@air.org.

Learn more about the special election

The application period was open from March 3, 2025, through April 4, 2025, and select applicants are being invited to participate in interviews on a rolling basis. The TNC received a total of 300 applications, including:

  • 182 (61%) organ transplant professionals (e.g., transplant surgeons; transplant physicians; and representatives of organ procurement organizations, transplant hospitals, voluntary health organizations, transplant coordinators, and non-physician transplant professionals);
  • 46 (15%) individuals with lived transplant experience (i.e., transplant candidates, transplant recipients, organ donors, family members of transplant recipient, family members of deceased donor);
  • 27 (9%) non-transplant professionals (e.g., professionals from law, theology, ethics, health care, public health, social and behavioral sciences, and labor and management unrelated to health care).
  • 20 (7%) organ transplant professionals with lived organ transplant experience;
  • 15 (5%) non-transplant professionals with lived experience; and
  • 10 (3%) individuals who are organ transplant and non-transplant professionals.

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.

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