Gwen McNatt

Gwen has a career in the field of transplantation that spans over 40 years; the last 19 of these years spent in transplant administration. She is an author, consultant, and speaker regarding best practices in transplant administration and quality. Since April 2020, Gwen has been the Chief Administrative Officer, Organ Transplant Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She previously served as Director, Operations at the Kovler Organ Transplantation Center at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She held this position from 2005 until April 2020. Previous positions in transplantation include manager, transplant nurse coordinator, and staff nurse at Northwestern and three other transplant centers. She has held numerous leadership positions in professional organizations such as the American Nephrology Nurse Association (ANNA), the Alliance, the American Society of Transplantation (AST), the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS), the North American Transplant Coordinators Organization (NATCO) and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). In addition, she serves as faculty for the American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation (AFDT) Living Donor Course and Transplant Quality Institute. She also is a practicing Advanced Practice Nurse, board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner. In 2018, Gwen was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and awarded the UNOS Heckenkemper Leader in Transplant Administration/Quality award.
Gwen received her BSN at the University of Iowa; earned a master’s degree in Public Health Nursing/Family Nurse Practitioner at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and an earned doctorate in nursing at Loyola University, Chicago. Her doctoral dissertation is titled: Easing My Burden: A Grounded Theory Study of Kidney Transplant Recipients’ Experience with Their Transplant Coordinators.