Dr. Clark Kensinger: Building the Bridges That Save More Lives

For Dr. Clark Kensinger, transplantation has always been about the team.

Whether he is leading donor management initiatives, performing a complex liver transplant, helping shape strategy across multiple organ procurement organizations (OPOs), or mentoring the next generation of transplant healthcare professionals, the common thread is collaboration. For him, the best outcomes happen when people trust one another, understand their roles, and work toward a shared goal.

It is a philosophy that has guided Dr. Kensinger throughout his career and one that continues to shape his work today as Surgical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at the Piedmont Transplant Institute, Director of LifeLink’s Donor Care Unit at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, and as recently appointed Chief Medical Officer for LifeLink Foundation with Donor Service Areas in Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

“The view that I have and what I was exposed to during my fellowship was that when transplant centers are moving in lockstep with their OPO, and vice versa, greater heights can be reached to save more lives,” says Dr. Kensinger.

That belief aligns closely with what drew him to the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance (The Alliance). “I was always so impressed with The Alliance’s mission of bringing different stakeholders across the transplant community together to think through issues and innovate together,” he says. “The Alliance brings those two communities together really well.”

A Career Built Around the Full Continuum

Dr. Kensinger’s path to transplantation began long before medical school.

Growing up in Ohio, he spent summers working in the operating room of his local hospital, cleaning surgical suites after procedures. Surgeons who knew him would occasionally invite him into the OR to observe cases. He filled notebooks with medical terms and concepts he wanted to understand. “It was just so inspiring,” he says. “I would go home and look up words in the medical dictionary for hours. Back then, quick Google searches really didn’t exist.”

By the time he entered college at Washington and Lee University, where he played football as a wide receiver and later served as team captain, he was determined to become a physician.

The teamwork he experienced on the football field would later reappear in an unexpected place. “I love camaraderie and I love teamwork,” he says. “I love the concept in football where you rely on the person next to you to do their job and you do your job in order to have a successful play. When I was first exposed to transplant at Vanderbilt as a resident, that’s what it felt like again. Everyone was working extremely hard in the pursuit of a great outcome for patients. And that camaraderie that had connected me all through my life of playing sports settled in beautifully with transplant.”

That sense of shared purpose deepened during medical school and residency, where mentors introduced him to organ procurement, donor families, and the life-changing impact of transplantation. Participating in an organ procurement during medical school proved particularly influential.

“I finally felt “square peg, square hole”,” he recalled. “This is my passion and direction.”

Mentorship remains one of the defining influences of his career. He speaks frequently about the transplant surgeons, clinicians, and leaders who shaped his thinking and showed him what excellence looks like.

“I have always been drawn to people that I admire and want to emulate,” he says. “The surgeons that I admired most in training were transplant surgeons.  My mentors have been incredibly important to me as they encouraged and supported my love for transplant

“I wanted a career that was woven into every part of my life. And I wanted to use what I learned in school and during training to impact someone else’s life. When I was exposed to transplant., It just fit that desire perfectly. It’s magic in terms of what we’re able to provide families and patients to offer them a new chance at life or a major improvement in the quality of life. To see someone nearly dying with liver failure and two weeks later they walk into the clinic for a checkup, it’s a beautiful thing. You can’t beat transplant.”

Creating a Model for Donor Care

One of Dr. Kensinger’s most significant contributions to the field has been helping establish and lead Lifelink’s six-bed Donor Care Unit at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.

Developed through a close partnership between Piedmont and LifeLink, the unit centralizes donor management and focuses on optimizing organ function before recovery. Over the past five years, more than 1,000 donors have been cared for through the collaboration.

Since opening more than five years ago, the DCU has helped facilitate more than 3,500 lifesaving organ transplants.

“One of the most significant drivers of this success is the ability to extend donor management time in a specialized ICU setting,” says Kensinger. “The DCU model emphasizes thoughtful donor resuscitation and physiologic optimization before organ recovery and allocation.”

This paradigm shift has produced measurable results. Donors managed within the DCU yield approximately one additional transplantable organ per donor compared with donors managed at originating hospitals.

The success stems from a willingness to challenge assumptions about efficiency. “If we lengthen out the time that we spend in donor management and organ specific resuscitation, we can  improve the quality and function of donor organ resulting in more transplant center interest for their patients,” he said.

The unit has attracted national attention, with numerous transplant centers and OPOs visiting Atlanta to learn from the donor care model. Yet when asked what he is most proud of, Kensinger does not point to metrics or recognition.

Instead, he points to culture.

“What I’m most proud of is the culture that we’ve helped create,” he says. “Building the team who inspire me every day through their hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment to quality while providing exceptional care to donors and donor families has been wonderful.”

That culture reflects lessons he learned during his fellowship training at the University of Wisconsin, where he witnessed the power of long-tenured teams, institutional knowledge, and a shared commitment to mission.

His goal was to recreate that environment in Atlanta. “How can you create a culture where people don’t want to leave?” he asks. “Where team members can have profound impact in the shared of mission of donor care and transplant?”

Dr. Kensinger lives with his wife, Maribeth, in an in-town Atlanta neighborhood where they can walk to local restaurants with their beloved 11-year-old dog, Annie. He met his wife, who is a nurse anesthetist, at Vanderbilt during his residency and they married in 2015. The couple rejuvenates through travel where they immerse themselves in culture, food, and wine. They recently returned from Madrid and Barcelona and will travel to Paris in the Fall and Japan next year.

The Human Side of Donation

For Dr. Kensinger, donor management is not simply a clinical challenge. It is also about honoring donors and donor families.

He describes the partnership between LifeLink staff and donor care unit staff as a collective effort to support families through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. From honor walks and memory keepsakes to bedside conversations and emotional support, the work extends well beyond medical management.

“The more people that love the mission and honor the donor family and donors, the longer the legacy of the donor lasts,” he says.

That perspective comes from seeing the entire continuum of donation and transplantation. He may help oversee donor care, participate in organ recovery, perform the transplant operation, and later watch recipients regain their health and return to their lives.

“Being able to be a part of the whole continuum,” he said, “I can’t see anything more rewarding.”

Looking Ahead

As transplantation enters a period of rapid change, Dr. Kensinger sees tremendous opportunity for stronger collaboration between OPOs and transplant centers, improved organ utilization, and innovations that expand access to transplantation.

In his new role as LifeLink’s Chief Medical Officer, he is helping align strategies and protocols across multiple donor service areas while continuing to practice as a transplant surgeon and lead donor care initiatives.

The challenges are complex, but his focus remains straightforward: build strong teams, foster trust, and create systems that help more patients receive lifesaving transplants.

That same spirit of shared learning is what continues to draw him to The Alliance and its role as a convener for the field. “We’re all one ecosystem,” Kensinger said. “If an OPO innovates, the downstream transplant center is going to have increased opportunities to improve for their patients, and vice versa.”

For a physician who has spent his career building connections across the donation and transplantation continuum, that belief remains both a guiding principle and a call to action.