Faculty Bios

Robert Brown, MD, MPH • Columbia University Medical Center

Robert S. Brown, Jr., MD, MPH is the Frank Cardile Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Transplantation Initiative at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, New York. He also holds appointments in the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics at Columbia and the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell School of Medicine. Dr. Brown, Jr. is the Director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York, New York.

Dr. Brown, Jr. received his medical degree from New York University and his Master of Public Health from the Graduate School of Public Health, University of California in Berkeley. Following the completion of his medical degree, he fulfilled his internship in Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and his fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of California in San Francisco.

A fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Gastroenterological Association and the American College of Gastroenterology, Dr. Brown, Jr. is also a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the European Association for the Study of the Liver, and the American Society for Transplantation. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Transplant Hepatology.

Dr. Brown, Jr. has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles most dedicated to viral hepatitis and liver transplantation and has extensive research funding in those areas. He is an Associate Editor for Liver Transplantation and a prior Associate Editor for Gastroenterology and Hepatology News and Hepatology. He was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplant Physicians in 1996, received the Senior Attending Teacher Award from New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in 2009, and was the American Liver Foundation New York Chapter’s Physician of the Year in 2010.

Matt Cooper, MD • Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute

Matthew Cooper is a Professor of Surgery at Georgetown SOM and the Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at the Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute (MGTI), Surgical Director for the Pediatric Kidney Transplant program at Children’s National Medical Center and the Medical Director for the MGUH Perioperative Services.

After receiving his medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1994, Dr Cooper completed his general surgery training at the Medical College of Wisconsin followed by a fellowship in multi-organ abdominal transplantation in 2002 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He joined the transplant faculty at the Johns Hopkins Hospital upon completion of his training, and was appointed Surgical Director of Kidney Transplantation and Clinical Research in 2003. Dr. Cooper joined the University of Maryland in 2005 directing the kidney transplant and clinical research program until 2012 when he assumed his current role in Washington, DC.

Dr. Cooper trained with the pioneers of the laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, regularly performs these procedures and seeks new opportunities for living donation by removing the disincentives for those considering donation while promoting the safety and long-term care of live organ donors. Dr. Cooper is involved in several ongoing clinical research projects primarily with an interest in immunosuppression minimization and amelioration of delayed graft function in kidney allografts following ischemic reperfusion injury. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 6 book chapters.

Dr. Cooper is involved in transplantation activities both locally in the District and on a national basis. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the NKF and a member of the NKF’s national TransplantTask Force, Public Policy Committee and Living Donor Executive Committee. He was elected to the National Board of Directors for the NKF. He recently served as the chairman of the United Network of Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) Living Donor Committee and currently sits on UNOS’ Board of Directors as well as the Boards for the American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation and the local OPO – Washington Regional Transplant Community. Dr. Cooper is the ASTS representative to the ATC Planning Committee and is a member of the AST Living Donor Community of Practice. 

Jami Hanneman, MSW, LCSW • University of Wisconsin

Rebecca Hays, MSW • University of Wisconsin

Cheryl Jacobs, MSW, LICSW • University of Minnesota

Cheryl Jacobs has been a clinical transplant social worker for living donors at the University of Minnesota-Medical Center for 23 years and currently, conducts psychosocial research on living kidney donors. She was instrumental in developing the psychosocial criteria used at their Living Donor Program for all solid organ donors (kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, and intestine) and for their Nondirected Kidney Donation Program, which was the first in the U.S. in 1999. Beyond providing clinical and advocacy services at her institution and State level, she created a living donor assistance fund in 2000 to assist donors at her program. Over the years, she has presented extensively at numerous national transplant conferences, and has conducted research and published on a variety of topics related to the psychosocial and financial impacts of living donation.

She has served on various National Committees and Consensus Conference Groups to develop Psychosocial Guidelines and practices for living donors as they’ve evolved over time. In addition to being a previous board member on the UNOS Living Donor Committee, she currently serves on the AST’s Executive Committee for the Psychosocial Community of Practice. Her current focus is studying their center’s nondirected-paired exchange donors.
 

Benjamin Hippen, MD, FASN, FAST • Metrolina Nephrology Associates, P.A.
 

Dianne LaPointe Rudow, ANP-BC, DNP, CCTC • Mount Sinai Hospital

David Serur, MD • NYP-Weill Cornell and Rogosin Institute
 

Ellen Shukhman, RN-BC, BSN, CCTC • Cedars Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center

Gena Boyle, MPA • UNOS

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Kimberly Brown, MD • Henry Ford Hospital 

Dr. Kimberly A. Brown is the Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. She joined the Henry Ford Medical Group in 1995 as medical director of the liver transplant program and was appointed Chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology in 2003. In addition, she served as the program director for the GI fellowship program from 2003 to 2008.

Dr Brown received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1981. She completed her medical degree at Wayne State University in 1985. Dr Brown completed both her residency in internal medicine as well as her fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Michigan in 1992 and was named chief medical resident in 1984-85.

As Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and past medical director of liver transplantation, Dr Brown sees and manages patients with complex liver disease both before and after liver transplantation. In conjunction with Dr Abouljoud, she worked to develop the leading liver transplant program in the State of Michigan. As fellowship director, she managed a fellowship program of 12 GI/liver fellows and continues to be involved in structuring and monitoring their education and academic success. She has published over 40 articles, 80 abstracts and 8 book chapters/reviews and is a very active clinical investigator in viral hepatitis, advanced liver disease and post liver transplant management.

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Lara Danziger-Isakov, MD, MPH • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

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Richard Formica, MD • Yale University

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John Friedewald, MD • Northwestern Medicine

John J. Friedewald, MD, is a transplant nephrologist on the medical staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and an associate professor of Medicine and Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. After earning an undergraduate degree in psychology from Princeton University and a medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Friedewald completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship training in Nephrology both at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Dr. Friedewald’s clinical interests include innovative methods to expand live donor kidney transplantation such as kidney paired donation and incompatible transplants. In 2013 he completed a two-year term as chair of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Kidney Committee during which time he led the effort to substantially revise the national kidney allocation policy for the first time in several decades. He has also chaired the UNOS Committee for Kidney Paired Donation, charged with creating a unified, national kidney paired donation system.

Dr. Friedewald is the director of Clinical Research for the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Feinberg. His funded research activities include studies looking to advance the non-invasive diagnosis of rejection using proteogenomic biomarkers, to study the genetic basis for transplant outcomes, and to improve detection and treatment of chronic antibody-mediated rejection.

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Elisa Gordon, PhD, MPH • Northwestern University

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Peter Heeger, MD •  Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

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Atul Humar, MD • University Health Network-University of Toronto

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Tiffany Kaiser, PharmD • University of Cincinnati 

Dr. Tiffany Kaiser is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Digestive Diseases at The University of Cincinnati (UC), practicing as a transplant clinical pharmacist at UC Medical Center. She is an assistant adjunct professor at the College of Pharmacy and an assistant director of the PGY2 transplant specialty residency in Cincinnati. She received her Pharm.D. degree from The Ohio State University and completed a pharmacy practice residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a specialty residency in solid-organ transplantation at UC. She is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist and a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP). She has served as primary or co investigator on multiple industry or NIH sponsored clinical trials. She is involved in pharmacy, liver, and transplant organizations and has previously served as chair of ACCP’s Immunology/Transplantation practice based network. She has presented nationally and published many articles in the areas of liver disease and transplantation.

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Jon Kobashigawa, MD • Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute

Jon Kobashigawa, MD is Associate Director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Director of Advanced Heart Disease Section and Director of the Heart Transplant Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

He holds the DSL/Thomas D. Gordon Chair in Heart Transplantation Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree at Stanford University and earned his medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He is a Past President of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Dr. Kobashigawa is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the heart transplantation field. He has published over 250 peer reviewed articles, chapters and monographs in the field of heart failure and transplantation and has chaired several multi-center studies. Dr Kobashigawa has organized and chaired several International Consensus Conferences to discuss pertinent questions in the field of heart failure and heart transplant. He lectures at universities around the world and mentors young physicians who have ascended to important academic positions throughout the country.

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Camille Kotton, MD • Massachusetts General Hospital

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Deepali Kumar, MD, MSc, FRCPC • University Health Network

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Matt Morrell, MD • University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 

Matthew Morrell graduated summa cum laude from the University of Utah with a bachelor of science in chemistry. Afterwards, he attended the University of California in Los Angeles School of Medicine where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He then completed both his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at Washington University in St. Louis/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. During this time he was awarded the Shatz-Strauss Teaching Award and the Washington University School of Medicine Resident of the Year Award. In July 2009, he joined the faculty of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Morrell’s main clinical interests are concentrated on the care of pulmonary transplant recipients and patients with end-stage lung disease. Dr. Morrell’s clinical research interests have included the risk factors for the development of chronic lung allograft dysfunction.

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Thomas Mueller, MD, PhD • University Hospital Zurich

Christian Oberkofler, MD • University Hospital Zurich

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Raymund Razonable, MD • Mayo Clinic

Raymund R. Razonable, MD, is Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He serves as the Director of Transplant Infectious Disease Program, Associate Chair for Faculty Development, Program Director of the Transplant ID Fellowship Program, and Associate Program Director of the Infectious Disease Fellowship Program in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr Razonable’s clinical interests include infections in immunocompromised hosts. His research addresses immunovirology and transplant infections, with specific interest in cytomegalovirus infections. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed original and review articles, more than 30 book chapters, and more than 140 abstracts on these topics. He has been a sought-after speaker at regional, national, and international meetings. Dr Razonable is an editor of the journal Transplant Infectious Diseases, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals.

A recipient of many awards and honors throughout his career, Dr Razonable was inducted as a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2011. He is a member of several other professional societies, including the American Medical Association, American Society for Microbiology, American Society of Transplantation (AST), AST Infectious Disease Community of Practice, the Immunocompromised Host Society, and the Transplantation Society.

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Peter Reese, MD, MSCE

Peter P. Reese, MD MSCE is a transplant nephrologist at the Penn Transplant Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning an undergraduate degree at Princeton in anthropology and a medical degree at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Reese completed residency and a chief residency year in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He then completed renal fellowship and transplant subspecialty training at Penn.

Dr. Reese's primary research focus is the development of effective strategies to increase access to kidney transplantation. He uses tools from epidemiology, biostatistics, and medical ethics to describe disparities in transplantation and methods to overcome them. His research portfolio also includes the development of effective strategies to improve health behaviors such as medication adherence. Through the United Network for Organ Sharing, where he serves as chair of the Ethics Committee, he helps to translate clinical research into effective national policy.

In the last five years, Dr. Reese’s research efforts have been supported by grants from the NIH, the Greenwall Foundation and the American Society of Transplantation. In recognition of his contributions to transplant research, he received a 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

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David Serur, MD • New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell

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Norah Terrault, MD, MPH  University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Norah Terrault is the Professor of Medicine and Surgery and the Director of the Viral Hepatitis Center at the University of California San Francisco.

She is recognized nationally and internationally for her work related to viral hepatitis, especially in the setting of liver transplantation. She has authored over 120 original articles, reviews and book chapters on the epidemiology, natural history and management of chronic liver diseases. She serves on the AASLD Governing Board and is the Deputy Editor for Liver Transplantation and Associate Editor for Hepatology. She is an investigator on several NIH-funded clinical studies in hepatitis B and C, and is an investigator on several ongoing clinical trials of antiviral therapies for patients with chronic hepatitis B and C.

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Kevin Myer, MSHA • LifeGift

With more than 25 years of experience in health care leadership, specifically in organ donation and transplantation, Kevin A. Myer, MSHA, took the reins of president and CEO of LifeGift in January, 2013.

Myer joined LifeGift from the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), where he served as the business director for the organization’s Center for Transplant System Excellence. In this role, Myer led efforts to improve the organ transplantation system through multiple funded research projects using non-traditional approaches and collaborative research teams. Previously, Myer was the assistant director for the UNOS Department of Evaluation and Quality, where he oversaw policy compliance auditing, organ allocation analysis and led special projects in patient safety. Before his tenure at UNOS, Myer held the positions of executive director and vice president of LifeNet Health, an organ procurement organization (OPO) and biomedical implant agency based in Virginia.

Myer received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. and earned his Master of Science in health administration degree from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. He also completed a fellowship in patient safety at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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William Vaughan • Guidry & East

William Vaughan is a nationally recognized consultant in organ transplant operations, and he has extensive experience in Medicare reimbursement. He was employed for 11 years by Aetna Life and Casualty Insurance in Hartford, Connecticut (a Medicare Intermediary). During that time, he served as an administrator of Medicare Part A field offices and of the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease Reimbursement Program, concerned with tissue-typing laboratories and independent organ procurement agencies.

In addition, William was Vice President of Reimbursement at LifeLink Foundation, Inc., Tampa. William has worked as a consultant with a number of health care providers in the areas of financial reporting, record keeping and management. He has also helped new health care organizations develop financial and organizational structures.

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Jon Friedman, MD • Optum

Jon Friedman, MD, has been with Optum for 14 years. Seven years as PacifiCare’s Medical Director of their National Preferred Transplant Network (prior to the merger with UnitedHealth Group), six years with Optum as the National Medical Director of Transplants and Congenital Heart Disease, and the last year as Chief Medical Officer for Optum’s Complex Medical Conditions programs.

Prior to joining PacifiCare in 2000, Dr. Friedman spent 10 years in practice with HealthCare Partners Medical Group in Los Angeles, where he had oversight of Utilization Management and Quality Improvement for their Los Angeles Region.

Dr. Friedman holds a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; an MD from Washington University Medical School in St. Louis; and a Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine from UCLA, Los Angeles. He is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. Dr. Friedman is a member of the American Society of Transplantation.

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Thomas Hamilton, MA • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Since 2003 Thomas E. Hamilton has served as the Director of the Survey and Certification Group within the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He directs the work of 7000 surveyors at the State and federal levels who perform quality of care inspections for more than 100,000 providers that participate in the Medicare or Medicaid programs, or that provide laboratory services under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA).

From 1999-2003 Mr. Hamilton served as the Director of CMS’ Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group. In that capacity he was responsible for Medicaid policy and programs for low income elderly and adults with a disability

For 21 years prior to joining CMS Mr. Hamilton was one of the principal architects of the Wisconsin system of health and long-term care (LTC).

A native of Massachusetts, Mr. Hamilton received a bachelor’s degree in 1973 from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA before conducting graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin.

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Pat Martin, RN, BSN, joined WellPoint, Inc in May 2003 as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Corporate Medical Policy Project Management Office. In that role, Pat helped the department to identify, develop, implement, and analyze new and emerging technologies for policy development. In May 2005, Pat assumed the role of Director, Specialty Network Management responsible for providing strategic direction for WellPoint’s 14 Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plan’s transplant network. She has served on subcommittees of both the United Network for Organ Sharing and American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Pat has an extensive background in clinical transplantation and nursing administration. She was previously employed with a hospital-based organ procurement organization and transplant center. Pat holds certifications in Medical/Surgical Nursing, Oncology Nursing, Clinical and Procurement Transplantation. 

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