I am a transplant surgeon and tenured professor with over 20 years of experience in kidney transplantation, pancreas transplantation, laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and multi-organ procurement.

My NIH-funded research focuses on access to living donor kidney transplantation. I have led the design and evaluation of several innovative interventions to improve patient empowerment to navigate the healthcare system and identify living donors. These interventions span the intersection of health communication, persuasive design, digital media, and multi-level approaches to behavior change.

With a graduate degree in Clinical Outcomes Research and Statistics, I lead research teams to analyze large healthcare datasets, innovative clinical trials, and cohort studies. This research focuses on organ utilization, organ allocation, geographic disparities, and post-transplant outcomes. My findings have been disseminated through numerous publications and my committee work at the Organ Procurement Transplant Network (OPTN) and American Society of Transplant Surgeons ASTS). My work has directly influenced policy, a New York state Congressional bill (the HEART Act for multilisting in the state).

I am most inspired by my collaborations and my role as a mentor. My research partners are community stakeholders, patients, and experts in health communication, anthropology, epidemiology, engineering, and community-based participatory research. I’ve mentored over 100 graduate students, residents, and faculty. To support these efforts, I obtained three training grants from the New York State Department of Health. I also serve as an Associate Member of UB’s Graduate Faculty to serve on dissertation committees of PhD candidates in public health.

Clinical Informatics, Community Based Participatory Research, Epidemiology, Health Disparities Research, Implementation Science, Surgery, Surgery - Transplant, Transplantation

Adults

Physician Gender:

Female