David Serur, M.D. - President
Medical Director, Kidney Transplantation
Hackensack Meridian Health
Hackensack, New Jersey
Dr. Serur came to Hackensack in 2020 from New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell where he’d served since 1991 with an interest in clinical transplantation and has been Medical Director of the kidney transplant program since 2007. Research interests have included pharmaceutical industry supported studies of new transplant medications as well as investigator-initiated studies. Dr. Serur was one of the earliest proponents of offering kidney transplantation to HIV patients on dialysis, something that many thought was too risky but is now routinely done. Recent interests have been in studying non-directed donors and donors within paired exchange. He serves on the editorial board of the journals Transplantation and Progress in Transplantation and served on the medical boards of the NY Organ Donor Network and the Manhattan chapter of TRIO, the transplant recipient organization. He has been involved in kidney paired exchange since its inception at Cornell in 2008. Dr. Serur has volunteered as Medical Director of the National Kidney Registry, the largest paired exchange program in the world and AFDT is delighted to have him serve on its Board of Directors and as a speaker of AFDT’s Living Donation Conference on many occasions.
Sander Florman, M.D. -Vice President
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
Sandy Florman, MD is currently The Charles Miller, MD Professor of Surgery and Director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute at the Mount Sinai Health System since 2009. Prior to this, he was the Director of Abdominal Transplantation at Tulane University and Childrens Hospital in New Orleans. He graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1994 and completed his surgical residency at Tulane University in 2000. Following completion of his fellowship in hepatobiliary and abdominal transplantation at Mount Sinai in New York, he remained on staff there until returning to Tulane in 2003. Dr. Florman has been very active in UNOS having served on the Liver and Intestine Committee and as the Chair of the Region 3 and Region 9 Review Boards. He co-chaired the Down staging group at the UNOS HCC Consensus Conference and was active on the Combined Liver/Kidney and Broader Sharing subcommittees. In addition, he has served on several ASTS committees (Bylaws, Communications, CME and Living Donor) and has been very active with the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency (LOPA) and LiveOnNY OPOs, having served as the Executive Board President of both. Dr. Florman is a member of many professional societies and has published more than 250 manuscripts and 20 book chapters.
Marian Charlton, RN, SRN, CCTC-Treasurer
Clinical Manager, Living Donation and Kidney Paired Donation Programs
Hackensack University Medical Center
Hackensack, NJ
Marian Charlton received her degree in SRN degree from the Barking and Havering School of Nursing in London, England. She completed an ENB Certification in Neurosciences and is certified as a Certified Clinical Transplant Coordinator (CCTC) since 1999. Marian began her career in Transplant at New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center (NYPWC) in 1988 as a Staff Nurse on the inpatient Transplant Unit. She transitioned to the role of Transplant Coordinator in 1998 and held various roles such as Post Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Coordinator, Liver Transplant Coordinator and Chief Living Donor/KPD Transplant Coordinator.
Currently, Marian is the Clinical Manager for both the Living Donor and Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) Programs at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC). Marian has been instrumental in program development, continuous improvement and increasing Living Donation transplants at HUMC. She is an At Large member and the Region 2 representative for the UNOS Kidney Committee.
Hosein Shokouh-Amiri, M.D. - Secretary
John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center
Shreveport, LA
Dr. Hosein Shokouh-Amiri is Director of Liver Transplant Program and Co-Director of Transplant Center at John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center, Shreveport LA. He received his Medical Degree from Pahlavi University Medical School in Shiraz, Iran in 1976. He started his surgical training in Iran, but moved to Denmark in 1980, where he finished his general surgery residency, and subspecialty in gastrointestinal and transplant surgery. During his 13 year stay in Denmark, he established the second liver transplant program there and became the first vice president of Denmark's transplant society before moving to the USA in 1992 to continue his career in transplantation at University of Tennessee.
His areas of expertise are in Transplantation with special interest in pancreas, liver and kidney. His other interest and expertise is in the management of hepato-pancreato-biliary pathology, including benign and malignant liver tumors, benign and malignant pancreas tumors and complications of laparoscopic surgery.
His utmost achievement is the Ellis Island Medal of Honor that I received in 2006 which is awarded annually to a group of distinguished American citizens who exemplify a life dedicated to community service and people who preserve and celebrate the history, traditions and values of his/her ancestry and who dedicate themselves to creating a better world for us all. He received the Best Teaching Faculty of the Year at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – Shreveport 2009, mentored and trained over 20 fellows and graduate students in research and clinical transplantation from different parts of the world including Japan, Egypt, Iran, Denmark and USA. Also, he has been a Professor of Surgery training more than 200 surgery residents during his tenure at University of Tennessee and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – Shreveport. He has published 162 peer review articles, more than 13 book chapters and has given numerous talks nationally and internationally. He has carried out various voluntary trips to Egypt and Iran trying to establish liver and pancreas transplant programs.
Robert A. Fisher, M.D.
Medical Director, CTI Clinical Trial & Consulting
Richmond, VA
Dr. Robert Fisher is a Medical Director at CTI Clinical Trial & Consulting and previously Chief Medical Officer at SP Global. Prior to entering the business world Dr. Fisher was Chief of Transplant Surgery and The Transplant Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a named Harvard Peter Medawar Professor of Surgery. He was the H.M. Lee Endowed Chair Professor of Surgery at the Medical College of Virginia and previously a surgical instructor at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center & Children’s Hospital. Dr. Fisher served with distinction in the United States Navy as an attending surgeon in the Naval Hospital Philadelphia and was later awarded a Navy Achievement Medal for his service as a Fleet Surgeon on the USS Forrestal in the Persian Gulf. He earned a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, completed a surgical residency at Case Western Reserve and an ASTS Transplant Fellowship at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center & Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Fisher’s general research interests include, gene therapy, thrombophilia, experimental tolerance models, hepatology, inborn errors of metabolism, regenerative medicine, and solid organ transplant, including preservations systems.
Dr. Fisher has authored more than 200 scientific publications and participated in nearly 75 clinical trials. He has held office in several professional organizations including President of the American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation and the Cell Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Society. He has been recognized for his service in the Navy and for his service to the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
Thomas G. Peters, M.D.
University of Florida College of Medicine
Jacksonville, FL
Dr. Thomas G. Peters served as The Methodist Medical Center Professor of Surgery and is currently Professor of Surgery Emeritus at the University of Florida, Jacksonville. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1970 and took general surgery training in the hospitals of the Medical College of Wisconsin followed by a clinical fellowship in organ transplantation at the University of Colorado. From 1978 to 1988 he served on the faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, where he rose to the tenured rank of Professor of Surgery.
Moving to Florida in 1988, Dr. Peters organized the Jacksonville Transplant Center at Methodist Medical Center as its founding Director, and served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Methodist. He became Chief of the Transplant Division at the University of Florida, Jacksonville and thereafter at UF-Shands Gainesville. In 2006, Dr. Peters received a gubernatorial appointment to the Florida Board of Medicine. He was a commissioned medical officer in the U.S. Army Reserve for over three decades, during which time he was active staff at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, served three active duty war-time tours, and retired as a Medical Corps Colonel. He is a past-president of SEOPF, and serves the American Society of Transplant Surgeons as Historian and liaison to the American Medical Association.
Francis H. Wright, Jr., M.D.
San Antonio, TX
Dr. Wright is the Medical Director for Transplant Care Consultants and is concerned with quality, outcomes and access for transplant care. He previously served as Director of the Solid Organ Transplant Program, and the Director of Transplant Surgery Fellowship Program at Texas Transplant Institute on the campus of Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio. Dr. Wright received his MD degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1978. After work at the University of Iowa with Dr. Robert Corry and time in Pittsburgh with Dr. Thomas Starzl, he founded and directed the transplant program at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He joined Dr. Lynn Banowsky in San Antonio in 1994 and later helped found the Texas Transplant Institute as Director of Organ Transplantation for the Institute.
Dr. Wright is certified by the American Board of Surgery, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and has personally performed over 3000 transplant procedures in his over thirty years of transplant surgery experience. He has served on several committees of the United Network for Organ Sharing working to develop national transplant policy. Dr. Wright is a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the International Transplantation Society and other major professional organizations. He has served as president of the Southeastern Organ Procurement Foundation and the American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation. He has had research interests in immunosuppression, pancreas transplantation and organ preservation, and has multiple publications regarding organ transplant topics. Currently his interests include patient empowerment, strategies for improving long-term outcomes and patient access, particularly in reference to distance and geography.
Amy Hahn Ph.D., F(ACHI)
Transplant Immunology Laboratory Director
Albany Medical College
Albany, NY
Amy Hahn Ph.D., F(ACHI) has been the director of the Transplant Immunology Laboratory and a professor in the Department of Surgery at Albany Medical College since 1997. Prior to that she was the lab director at Medical University of South Carolina, where she first became acquainted with SEOPF (now AFDT). Dr. Hahn is a past-president of ASHI and of ABHI (now ACHI). She has also served as a histocompatibility representative on the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors and MPSC. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Human Immunology from 2016-2023.
Dr. Hahn attended the Histocompatibility Specialist Course in 1992 as a student. She began teaching in the course in 2014 and began teaching in the Basic Histocompatibility Course in 2015. In 2019 she became the course director for both courses. She has truly enjoyed serving AFDT in this capacity and working with the other faculty as well as the excellent AFDT office staff.
Suzanne McGuire, RN, BSN, CCTC
Retired Living Donor Kidney Transplant Coordinator for UCLA Health
Los Angeles, CA
Suzanne McGuire received her BSN degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She achieved certification through the American Board for Transplant Certification as a Clinical Transplant Coordinator (CCTC) in 2003. Suzanne worked her entire nursing career in Transplant Services at UCLA Medical Center, first as a clinical nurse in the Liver Transplant/Surgical ICU then transitioned to the role of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Coordinator. She managed the adult kidney and pancreas transplant waiting list for several years before assuming the role of Living Donor Transplant Coordinator in 2004.
Through June 2021, Suzanne served as supervisor of the living donor team in UCLA’s Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. In this role, she mentored living donor transplant coordinators in coordinating direct donation cases and specialized in the management of desensitization and blood group incompatible living donor transplants and kidney paired donation (KPD) transplantation. Suzanne enjoyed hands-on participation in the development and growth of highly complex pathways to living donor transplantation at UCLA. She has served on the UNOS Living Donor and Membership and Professional Standards Committees, as well as faculty member and speaker for the annual AFDT Living Donor Core Concepts conference since its inception.
Fuad Shihab, M.D.
University of Utah Medical Center
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dr. Fuad Shihab is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah where he is also the Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation Program. He joined the Board of Directors at AFDT in 2009. He served on a number of national committees in the field of transplantation and is currently Chair of the Conflict of Interest Committee of AST. He has chaired its Renal Fellowship Accreditation in addition to having been involved in its Kidney-Pancreas, Clinical Practice, Development and International accreditation committees. He also served on the Membership and Professional Standards committee of UNOS and the Transplant Advisory Group of ASN in addition to being on the Medical Advisory Board and the Clinical Research committee of NKF. In addition to his clinical duties, Dr. Shihab has research interests in nephrotoxicity of immunosuppressive drugs, chronic allograft nephropathy, living donation and outcome research.
Peter Kennealey, M.D.
University of Colorado Hospital
Aurora, CO
Dr. Peter Kennealey is the Associate Professor of Surgery, Surgical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant and Director of the Vascular Access Surgery Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, CO. His hospital appointments include Attending Surgeon at both the University of Colorado Hospital and the Children’s Hospital Colorado. Dr. Kennealey received his medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. His post-doctoral training was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY and Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN. He has received many honors and maintains many professional memberships, leaderships, lectures and affiliations.
Marian O’Rourke, RN, BSN, CCTC
Miami Transplant Institute, Jackson Memorial Hospital
Miami, FL
Marian has over 20 years of experience in solid organ transplant including clinical coordination, management and leadership, and quality and compliance roles in all organ transplants. She is currently the Director for Quality, Compliance, and Outcomes Management at the Miami Transplant Institute as at the Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
She is a past president of NATCO, The Organization for Transplant Professionals having served on the Board of Director and various committees for a number of years. She has served on multiple OPTN/UNOS committees including the Data Advisory Committee, Transplant Coordinators Committee, Chair of the Ad Hoc International Affairs Committee, and the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors. She was also on the Strategic Planning committee of the HRSA Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice, in addition to the HRSA Transplant Center Task Force. She was on the joint NATCO/ITNS planning committee for ATC pre meeting symposiums, and served in planning committee roles for the 2014 WTC.
She is faculty on the AFDT sponsored Living Donation Conference and the Transplant Quality Institute. She is also a member of the Alliance Transplant Leadership Council and the Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice.
Matthew Cooper, M.D. - Immediate Past President
Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital
Milwaukee, WI
Dr. Matthew Cooper is the Chief of the Transplant Surgery Division of Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Director of Solid Organ Transplantation of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Professor of Surgery and the Mark B. Adams Chair of Transplant Surgery for the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Mr. Cooper spent many years as Professor of Surgery and as the Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at the Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute. 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. While at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he was instrumental in the success of the division's Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program and the world's first live triple donor kidney exchange in July 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 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 6 book chapters.
Dr. Cooper is involved in the National Kidney Foundation both locally in the District and on a national basis. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the NKF of DC and a member of the NKF’s national End The Wait Task Force and Living Donor Executive Committee. He recently served as the chairman of the United Network of Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) Living Donor Committee and currently serves as UNOS’ President. Dr. Cooper also serves on the Board of the Washington Regional Transplant Community OPO with an effort toward eliminating wastage of deceased donor organs.
