A self-described ‘Team Mom’ who’s happiest when anonymously working in the background, the accomplishments of nationally regarded University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) transplant administrator Nancy Metzler show how effective that approach can be.
“I’m like the Team Mom,” says Metzler, Executive Director of Transplant Services at the URMC Transplant Institute. “I make sure that people have the resources they need. I make sure everyone is being good and kind to each other, and that we’re following all the rules.”
“At the end of each day if I have been able to support our team as they save a life, help a patient, a living donor or a donor family then I am grateful. We have the unique privilege as transplant administrators to support our teams as they turn a tragedy into a miracle. We get to be the supportive cast working in the background to ensure that budgets are adequate, staffing is optimal, and our teams feel appreciated and supported. I’m a background player; I’m here to make the clinical teams’ lives better.“
Metzler serves as a member of the Planning Committee for The Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance’s (The Alliance) 2025 National Critical Issues Forum: Partnerships to Grow Transplants in the Modern Era that will be held in Atlanta October 7-8. “Last year I went to the Critical Issues Forum for the first time, and I was blown away by the collective sharing,” says Metzler, “I’m very involved with a number of transplant organizations but I was inspired and agreed to join The Alliance’s planning committee.”
Metzler says the committee’s focus is on innovative approaches to expand transplant opportunities through cross-sector collaboration. “We all need to do more transplants,” she says. “Our community is always looking for ways to grow, because we don’t have enough organs for everybody that needs one. We want to collectively share solutions, so that we can all learn and then consider adopting them at our institutions. It’s about managing growth and continuing to provide the best quality care to our patients while growing.”
She also serves on the Steering Committee of The Alliance’s 2025 Transplant Payer Collaborative, that is working to create a platform for dialogue and collaboration among key stakeholders in the field of transplantation, including payers, transplant programs, and other relevant organizations. Its primary purpose is to educate and engage stakeholders to advance best practices, ensure equitable access to transplantation, and improve patient outcomes. The Transplant Payer Collaborative will hold a meeting on October 6 prior to The Alliance’s 2025 National Critical Issues Forum in Atlanta.
Metzler has contributed to many local, state, and national committees and boards, focusing on improving the transplant and procurement system. She recently served on the OPTN Board and Finance Committee, has chaired the Transplant Administrators Committee and served on the Membership and Professional Standards Committee for the OPTN. She serves on the New York State Transplant Council where she heads up a special task force on the NASEM report. She participates in the New York Kidney, Liver, and Heart Consortiums.
Family is Her Foundation
In 2024, she received the Annual Heckenkemper Leader in Transplant Administration / Quality Award that is given each year at the UNOS Transplant Management Forum to an individual who has made significant contributions to organ donation and transplantation. In her acceptance speech, Metzler thanked her 85-year-old Dad who she still relies on for advice. “I don’t have an MBA or an MHA, but I always say that I have an advanced degree from the Michael West school of hospital administration,” said Metzler. “My Dad was a respected hospital CEO and I have leaned on his wisdom and guidance throughout my career. I know that I’m a better person thanks to the lessons I learned from him and from my Mom at our dinner table and that continue to this day.”
Metzler is the middle child and her older sister and younger brother both became teachers like their Mother. Her husband Mike is a retired advertising executive and a retired high school English teacher. Their son Luke lives in California and is a singer-songwriter. She says her family is her foundation. “They are the reason that I do what I do, and I would move heaven and earth for my husband and my son,” she says.
Metzler talks openly about the loss of Hannah, their daughter who died in 2014 when she was 17 years old from a glioblastoma brain tumor. She says the experience altered her personal and professional life. “I try to employ the strategies that I learned from Hannah as we journeyed through her illness. I try not to sweat the small stuff and I try to tackle the hard stuff head on just like Hannah did. She also showed us that it’s important to be able to employ regular doses of humor along the way and I think we’ve all had those days where if you didn’t laugh you would be crying. Hannah always found a way to see the bright side of things.”
When Hannah was sick, her brother wanted to bring his college cappella choir to the hospital to sing for her. “Hannah said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t just sing for me. You should sing for all the kids on the unit,’” says Metzler. The brother and sister went on to plan and conduct several Crush Cancer concerts to raise money for cancer research.
“We still have Hannah’s fund at the Rochester Area Community Foundation. We support causes that would be near and dear to her,” says Metzler, “and we just donated to the Transplant Teenz group. When you have something tragic happen, you have a couple choices of how you can react. It would have been very easy to never want to leave our house again after Hannah died, but we’ve chosen to do what we thought Hannah would do, which is help other people and try to make something good happen from something really awful.”
University of Rochester Team
Metzler has been at the University of Rochester for 21 years. “I have an amazing group of people that I am so fortunate to work with. In 2024, our organization moved from a transplant service line to a transplant institute, and we have excellent physician and surgeon leadership. They listen to us and appreciate the administrative perspective. It’s a good group of people who are here because they care about transplant and want to improve the lives of our patients.”
In her role, Metzler advocates for resources for the transplant team. “We’re part of a large medical center which is a bit like being part of a large family. Just because we need something it doesn’t mean that we automatically get what we want. Lots of departments are in need of resources and leadership has to prioritize the spending. You have to put your rationale together and demonstrate why the resources are needed, and what it will deliver back to the organization.”
She is a huge proponent of the University of Rochester Medical Center. “I’ve had the same boss since I came here; she was the COO and is now the CEO. There are not a lot of organizations that have that level of stability,” says Metzler “They appreciate and understand transplant and support our program and support me. I’m proud of the team that I have, and the team that I work for because our organization wants to do the right thing. It’s a place that cares about the people that walk through our doors.”
Metzler was born in Rhode Island, and she has lived in seven states throughout her life. She lived in three states growing up as her father’s hospital career took him to different hospitals in different states and she’s lived in four states as an adult. She attended the University of Iowa, where she planned to study nursing but switched to business. Early in her career, she negotiated managed care contracts and from 1994-98 served as director of managed care for Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago where she became very involved in transplant contracting.
Metzler says she was an early adopter of remote working when she and her husband moved with their young children to their family farm in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota in 1997. “I had dial-up internet and a fax machine, and I negotiated the transplant contracts for Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago from Minnesota,” she says. She went on to work remotely doing transplant contracting for a reinsurance contract organization. In 2004, she joined the University of Rochester.
Metzler and her husband live in Fairport, NY. An avid reader (currently reading James for her book club) she hopes to get back to gardening and hiking after recovering from a recent knee replacement. She and her husband love to travel and do so frequently with their son and his girlfriend.
The Ripple Effect of Transplant
Metzler describes the ceremony that honors transplant recipients at the completion of the annual Rochester River 5K Run to raise money for the URMC Transplant Institute Patient Fund. “We call them out. We say, ‘Stand up if you’ve had your organ transplant for more than 40 years,’ and there’s always people who stand up. You see their families who are there, and you viscerally understand the ripple effect of transplant when you see that person who had 40 years of being with their family and all the milestones they got to see and participate in. Remembering that ripple effect helps you overcome the tough days.”
