Board of Directors

Debra Budiani

Debra Budiani-Saberi, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Director and Founder

Visiting Research Associate, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Debra Budiani-Saberi, Ph.D. is a Medical Anthropologist, the Executive Director and Founder of the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions and Visiting Research Associate Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
She has conducted extensive research related to organ trafficking beginning in 1999 as a part of her study on refugee health. Her work has included an analysis of key stakeholders and actors involved in the organ trade including victims, recipients, medical professionals, religious clerics, laboratories, and the state. She has conducted extensive follow-up studies on health, economic, social and psychological consequences and, with the COFS team, established COFS prevention and outreach programs.  She has provided consultation on organ trafficking to the World Health Organization, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and has worked in alliance with various medical and civil society organizations to combat the organ trade.   She has been an invited lecturer in numerous universities in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia, has published in medical and social science journals and appeared on numerous radio and television programs including the Wall Street JournalAl Jazeera (English and Arabic), CBSBloomberg NewsBritish Medical Journal News, Al-Ahram and China Public Radio.
Dr. Budiani-Saberi has also worked more broadly on health and human rights  in various parts of the Middle East and Northeast Africa (Egypt, Eritrea, Morocco, Somalia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates) as well as in India.

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Renee Fox

Renée C. Fox, Ph.D.

Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Fellow Emerita of the Center for Bioethics

A summa cum laude graduate of Smith College , she holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University , where she studied in the Department of Social Relations. Her major teaching and research interests – sociology of medicine, medical research, medical education, and medical ethics – have involved her in first-hand participant observation-based studies in Continental Europe (particularly Belgium), in Central Africa (especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire), and in the People’s Republic of China, as well as in the United States. Her best-known books are Experiment Perilous: Physicians and Patients Facing the Unknown; In the Belgian Château: The Spirit and Culture of a European Society in an Age of Change; The Courage to Fail: A Social View of Organ Transplantation and Dialysis; and Spare Parts: Organ Replacement in American Society (the last two of which were coauthored with medical historian Judith P.Swazey). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Institute of Medicine , and the recipient of nine honorary degrees. In 1995, the Belgian Government named her Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II.

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Deborah Golden

Deborah Golden, J.D.

Secretary

DC Prisoners’s Legal Services

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Megan Plyler

Megan Plyler, Ph.D.

Treasurer

Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland

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Advisory Council

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

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Gabriel Danovitch, M.D.

Gabriel Danovitch, M.D.

Director, Kidney and Kidney-Pancreas Transplantation, Renal Transplant Service, UCLA Medical Center

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Hossam Fadel, M.D.

Hossam Fadel, M.D.

Representative from the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA)

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Sylwia Gawronska
Human Rights Consultant
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Jok Madut Jok, Ph.D.

Jok Madut Jok, Ph.D.

Professor of (Medical) Anthropology, Loyola Marymount

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Samer El-Kamary, M.D.

Samer El-Kamary, M.D.

University of Maryland – Regional Program Specialist

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Azza M. Karam, Ph.D.

Azza M. Karam, Ph.D.

Senior Policy Research Advisor, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

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Dr. Christina Papachristou MPH
Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Germany
Dr. Christina Papachristou is a clinical psychologist and public health professional. She works as a clinical and research associate in the University Hospital of Charité in Berlin, Germany since 2001. Apart from her clinical work with psychosomatic patients she is responsible for the assessment and support of living donors and recipients. Her research focus lies on the psychosocial, ethical and policy aspects of transplantation and living donation. She has been a core participant in ELIPSY, a European Union funded research programme about the psychosocial wellbeing of living donors. She is an active member of ELPAT (a subgroup of ESOT on the Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects of Transplantation) and of LIDOBS (Living Donor Observatory) where she acts as a coordinator of the working group on the Ethical and Legal Aspects of Living Donation. A trained psychotherapist she has also completed a Masters in Health Economics, Policy and Management at the London School of Economics.

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Abderrahim Sabir
Abderrahim Sabir
Executive Director, Partners in Human Rights (Headquarters: Casablanca, Morocco)

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Othman Shibly, DDS, M.S.

Othman Shibly, DDS, M.S.

International Education and Programs Associate Director, Center for Clinical Dental Studies University at Buffalo; Scholar of Islamic Law Damascus University

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Keth Ditthavong

Keth Ditthavong

Keth Ditthavong has passion for socially impactful philanthropy, serving as Board Member of a non-profit, Devotion to Children, which helps economically disadvantaged families with childcare as well as health and educational services. Keth co-founded an Internet start-up in the early ‘90s using his expertise as data and telecommunications engineer. His love of entrepreneurship remained in tack after attending law school and working at boutique and major law firms. In 2000, Keth co-founded his own law firm, presently known as Ditthavong & Steiner, P.C. — with offices in Washington, D.C., New York, San Diego, and Taipei. He grew the firm from 2 people to over 60 employees and positioned the firm as an international powerhouse in intellectual property. Keth also pursues other business ventures in film and music, fashion, beverage, as well as software. His biggest accomplishment has been assembling the people he gets to work and collaborate with each and every day. He strives continually to give back.