With a shared commitment to explore bold ideas for the future of organ donation and transplantation, the UC San Diego Health Center for Transplantation and The Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance (The Alliance) have developed a strong partnership. UC San Diego Health Center for Transplantation serves as a Platinum Circle Partner of The Alliance.
This past May, The Alliance supported the UC San Diego Center for Research, Education, Innovation and Transformation in Organ Donation (REIMAGINE Center) and the Donation and Transplantation Institute (DTI) Foundation for a Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD) Advanced Training in Normothermic Regional Perfusion (NRP) course that was led by experts from Europe and the United States. The program immersed participants in both theoretical foundations of NRP and hands-on DCD-NRP surgical simulation and training with real-time instruction from pioneers in the field.
“Our partnership with UC San Diegos’s REIMAGINE Center and the Donation and Transplantation Institute Foundation (DTI) came at exactly the right time,” says Deanna Fenton, Senior Manager of Educational Program Development & Operations at The Alliance. “With The Alliance’s commitment to high-quality educational programming, particularly around DCD and inclusive practices, it was a natural fit to support their hybrid training program.”
“The success of these early programs has opened the door to continued collaboration. We’re now actively exploring future partnership opportunities, including UC San Diego’s 2026 DCD-NRP workshop and other in-person and virtual programs,” adds Fenton.
The REIMAGINE Center is a pioneering work to revolutionize the organ donation and transplantation landscape. REIMAGINE is led by Gabriel Schnickel, MD, MPH, founder, executive director of the center and professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine. The center represents the first time an academic institution has a dedicated center where organ donation and allocation are the central focus.
Aleah Brubaker, MD, PhD, assistant professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a transplant surgeon-scientist, leads the REIMAGINE Center’s basic and translational sciences program and is a member of The Alliance’s Planning Committee for the 2025 National Critical Issues Forum, “Partnerships to Grow Transplants in the Modern Era” October 7-8 in Atlanta, GA. She also serves on The Alliance’s National Innovation Leadership Council and in May 2025 co-moderated an Alliance On-Demand Advancement Series Roundtable Discussion on “The U.S. Experience in DCD-Normothermic Regional Perfusion (NRP). In 2024 Brubaker delivered one of the well-received “TAD Talks” titled “Fuel, Friction and Flexibility,” posing the key question about we drive innovation within bureaucratic environments.
In addition to exploring emerging technologies and the future of organ donation and transplantation, the partnership between UC San Diego Health Center for Transplantation and The Alliance is built on a solid foundation of educational programs that promote dialogue.
“Tamra Magee, who was the director of the UC San Diego Health Center for Transplantation from 2018-2024, drove our partnership with The Alliance,” says Kristin Mekeel, MD, who served as chief of the Division of Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine until becoming the chief quality officer at the University of Colorado Health – Anschutz Medical Campus in May 2025. Mekeel now serves on the Alliance Board of Directors.
“In the last couple of years, The Alliance has become one of the most visible groups in the United States who is bringing together all stakeholders in transplantation with particularly important conversations between OPOs and the transplant centers. We are at an inflection point in transplantation and everything’s changing fast, so these conversations are crucial,” she adds.
“We appreciate the support of all our partners, both professional and corporate, as we work to ignite bold advancements in organ donation, transplantation, and patient survival through collaboration and engaged learning,” says Karri Hobson Pape, executive director of The Alliance. “Our partnership with UC San Diego Health Transplantation Center enhances the sharing of expertise with the community towards the common goal of increasing innovation in organ donation and transplantation.”
The UC San Diego Health Transplantation Center has incorporated The Alliance’s Onboarding U Foundational Perspectives of Organ Transplantation, a series of learning pathways made up of online learning modules, to supplement UC San Diego’s employee orientation program, says Deepa Kurup, senior director of the UC San Diego Health Center for Transplantation. “We also encourage our team members to attend The Alliance’s webinars and conferences and to take advantage of all of their learning materials.”
The Alliance is on the leading edge of all the changes and trends,” adds Kurup. “The pure intent is just to help the community, whether it’s an OPO, a Transplant Center, a donor or a recipient family. It provides an unbiased platform for everybody to share their expertise and stories.”
The Alliance is supported by voluntary financial support from professional and corporate partners and the UC San Diego Health Center for Transplantation is one of 29 Platinum Circle Partners. Professional partners work with the Alliance to advance the organ donation and transplantation field and each other. That support enables The Alliance to continue powering synergy, sparking innovation, and turning discoveries into solutions for an equipped, agile, and empowered community.
