Katie Hanzlicek, CTBS

Katie Hanzlicek is a Senior Operations Analyst with JRF Ortho where she supports supplier relationships, balances osteochondral allograft supply and demand, and assists with company quality systems. Katie began her career in tissue banking in 2012 as an Operations Technician at AlloSource. She gained hands- on experience in allograft tissue production, cleansing, and packaging, as well as product development, quality management, and technical writing. Katie co-authored two patents (currently pending) on rapid allograft treatment. She will complete her Master of Business Administration degree with a specialization in Change Management the Summer of 2020, aligning her passion in science and business.

Roy Mayfield, CTBS

In his current role, Mr. Mayfield manages the daily activity of tissue recovery services clinical staff throughout Gift of Hope's service area. While his main office is in Springfield, IL he splits his time between both the Springfield office and Chicago office. He develops and implements clinical policies, procedures and protocols for all aspects of the tissue donation process. Mr. Mayfield’s area of personal interest is coordinating special tissue and bone grafts for patients at risk of limb loss due to cancer or other medical or traumatic conditions as well as maximizing the recovery of split thickness skin for burn patients in need of the life-saving grafts. Roy's previous work at Gift of Hope included fucntioning as Coroner/FH /Pathologist Liaison in downstate Illinois, working to encourage and facilitate donation in Central Illinois. He also implemented Gift of Hope's embalming program for tissue donors. He worked with Memorial Medical Center and Southern IL School of Medicine on their Vascular Composite Allograph (VCA) program. His role was in training and networking between the OPO and transplant center as well as Department of Plastic Surgery at SIU. Roy is a certified tissue banking specialist, a member of the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), and has served as a national committee member for the AATB, speaking at national conventions about successes with special tissue and bone grafts.

Michael Bergevin, MD

Dr. Bergevin is an independent contractor and previously served as the Senior Medical Director for LifeNet Health. He is board certified in Anatomic/Clinical Pathology and Pediatric Pathology and has been in tissue banking for more than 15 years. He is presently serving on the AATB Physician's Council and the Certification Committee . He has served in the past as a member of the Scientific and Technical Affairs Committee (STAC), Planning Committee and Accreditation Committee.

Alyssa Harrison, CTBS

Alyssa Harrison serves as the Director of Tissue Services at LifeShare of Oklahoma. Prior to this she served as the Executive Director of United Tissue Network. She has earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Adult Education from the University of Central Oklahoma as well as a Master of Business Administration from Washington State University. Alyssa has gained extensive knowledge of the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and funeral home rules and regulations to ensure United Tissue Network not only meets but exceeds in all standards. Alyssa currently sits as the Chairperson of the Non-Anatomical Donation Organization (NADO) Council for AATB and is very active in the NADO industry including helping improve regulation standards, legislation activities and educational objectives.

Anna Tirrell, CTBS

Anna Tirrell, BS CTBS: Vice President - Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs. Birth Tissue Recovery, LLC. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

 
Anna began her tissue banking career more than ten-years ago processing amniotic membrane allografts.  Since then she has expanded her roles and responsibilities to include successfully guiding 510k medical device clearance, CE mark, and quality system design.  She has extensive experience with FDA and ISO, quality system build-up, and industry knowledge.  She is an AATB-Certified Tissue Bank Specialist and serves the Association as a member of the Standards Committee.  Anna is dedicated to, and passionate about, educating others about the benefits of human tissue donation,

Kim A. Collins, MD, FCAP

Forensic Pathologist, Fulton County ME, Medical Director

Dr. Collins, serves as a forensic pathologist with Newberry Pathology Associates and is a Medical Director for SharingHope SC, the Organ and Tissue Donation Services for South Carolina. After receiving her BS in microbiology, magna cum laude Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Georgia, Athens, Dr. Collins earned her MD from the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta. Following medical school, Dr. Collins completed an anatomic and clinical pathology residency at Wake Forest University/Bowman Gray School of Medicine. After residency, she completed a forensic fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina where she remained on faculty as a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director of Forensic and Autopsy Pathology, and Chief Medical Examiner. Dr. Collins is a Diplomat of the American Board of Pathology, board certified in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, and forensic pathology. She is a member of the College of American Pathologists and past Chair of the Autopsy Committee. She is past President of the South Carolina Society of Pathologists, and past Chair for the Pathology/Biology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She serves on the Board of Directors and is past-President for the National Association of Medical Examiners.

Tucker Knox, CTP, CTBS

Tucker Knox joined LifeShare in 2012 as an organ preservationist and tissue recovery technician. In 2017, Tucker was promoted to manager of the department and now leads the preservation and tissue teams. His interest in the human anatomy combined with the positive impact donation can bring inspired him to seek a position in the industry. He has a Bachelor of Science in Health and Exercise Science with a Sports Medicine concentration from Colorado State University. He is a certified transplant preservationist (CTP) and certified tissue banking specialist (CTBS). Out side of work, Tucker enjoys spending time with his wife Cynthia and son TJ, cheering on the Carolina Panthers and halfway finishing DIY projects.

Cara Krepp, B.S., CTBS

I graduated from Carlow University in 2014 with a BioChemistry degree- during which time I interned for Dr. Cyril Wecht as an autopsy technician. After graduating I began my journey with the Center for Organ Recovery and Education in January 2015 as a member of the Recovery Coordinator department. Cross trained in tissue recovery, ocular recovery, and organ perfusion.

Ryan Cormier, BS, CTBS

Ryan Cormier began his career in tissue recovery as a tissue recovery technician at Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates in 2012 where he had been in EMS for 2 years when he discovered his passion for organ and tissue donation. He soon moved to Boston where he continued his career in tissue recovery at New England Organ Bank, now New England Donor Services. After four years, Ryan moved his family to Michigan where he was chosen to lead the tissue recovery team at Gift of Life Michigan as their new manager in 2015. Ryan holds a Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration and has been CTBS certified since 2014. In addition to leading his recovery team to record recovery volumes and sustained low error and contamination outcomes, Ryan is also responsible for the staffing model change that has allowed Gift of Life Michigan to staff appropriately and adequately for the unpredictable nature of tissue donation.

Shabnam M. Namin, PhD, MBA, CTBS

Vice President of Research & Development

Dr. Namin is the Vice President of Research and Development for UMTB Biomedical, Inc. She is responsible for leading product development of all cell and tissue based products for the company. In addition, Dr. Namin is an important member of the commercialization team. Her main interest is the development of regenerative therapies focused around amniotic derived tissue products. As such, Dr. Namin has played an integral role in developing and commercializing the company’s amniotic tissue offerings.
Dr. Namin received her bachelors and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Florida International University.  She also received an MBA and MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami. During her studies, Dr. Namin spent several years working in many different facets in the tissue engineering realm, focusing on the commercialization of cell and tissue based products. She has multiple publications and patents for her work on the development of these therapies. She is currently an active member of the Scientific & Technical Affairs Committee (STAC) for the American Association of Tissue Banks.  

Louis Jares, CTBS, CEBT, D-ABMDI

Education Director

Louis Jares is an Education Director with the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF). Having been in the tissue banking industry for over 23 years, he began his work in the field of donation at the Mile High Transplant Bank in Denver in 1996 and has since also worked for Donor Alliance and The Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank. Louis has a Bachelor of Science in biology and is also a Certified Tissue Bank Specialist (1998), a Certified Eye Bank Technician (2003), a Registered Diplomate with the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (2006), and an affiliate member of the National Association of Medical Examiners (2009). He has participated in several committees and projects over the years including the AATB Accreditation and Education Committees, the Donor Alliance Mortuary Resource Committee, tissue banking consultation in the Republic of Colombia, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands. As part of his international work, he has had the honor of presenting at the European Association of Tissue Banks in Brussels, Belgium in 2014. Louis was a co-founder of the MTF Medical Examiner and Coroner Advisory Committee which he helped co-found in 2006 and kept active until the Committee’s dissolution in 2017. He is also a member of the NAME Ad Hoc Organ and Tissue Committee since 2015. His personal interests in research and Forensic Anthropology came together with a recently published journal article entitled Transplanted Allograft Bone in Forensic Anthropology published in the Journal of Forensic Radiology and Imaging in March 2017. He is the current Chairperson of the AATB Education Committee and Elected Vice-Chairperson of the AATB RADE Council. Louis hails from Denver, Colorado but currently resides in South Texas, between San Antonio and Austin.

Faith Case, BS, CTBS

Faith Case has served in the tissue bank industry for the past ten years with a primary focus on quality systems. She is the Director of Quality Assurance, Risk & Safety at Regenerative Biologics, Inc. (formerly known as Southeast Tissue Alliance, SETA) a tissue recovery and acquisition agency in Gainesville Florida. Faith has committed her career to continuous improvement, challenging the fundamental quality of people, processes, and products to achieve superior performance outcomes. She advocates creating cultures that promote continuous learning and process improvement. Recognizing and honoring the gift of donation, Faith is committed to maintaining the integrity of donors and raising awareness of the importance and benefit of donation. 

Thomas L. Willett, PhD

Assistant Professor, Systems Design Engineering - Biomedical Engineering Program

Thomas Willett is an Assistant Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo where he directs the Composite Biomaterial Systems Laboratory and contributes to the undergraduate Biomedical Engineering program and a graduate level NSERC CREATE training program in Global Biomedical Technology Research and Innovation. He has been involved in skeletal tissue mechanics research (both soft and hard tissues) for over 15 years, starting with cartilage mechanics (MASc, Queen’s University), then damage mechanisms in tendons (PhD, Dalhousie University) and a broad range of studies in bone quality and mechanics (Mount Sinai Hospital and University of Toronto). He has conducted research in the structural allograft processing area for approximately 8 years. Current research focusses on cortical bone fracture mechanics, the factors affecting cortical bone quality and mechanical properties including processing and sterilization in tissue banking, and the development of 3D printable composite biomaterials for bone reconstruction. He has published 45 peer reviewed journal articles and his laboratory has received major funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Foundational for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry for Research and Innovation.

Sharon Castellanos, DNP, WHNP-BC, CNS, AHN-BC

Dr. Sharon Castellanos is an expert nurse practitioner in the field of Maternal-Fetal Medicine with a strong internal medicine background. She has spent the last 25 years as a champion in the field of diabetes, developing, implementing and deploying innovative curriculums within Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara and Kaiser San Jose. Her goal is to improve access, value and meaningful care to obstetrical patients. She recently retired from Kaiser and returned to practice within Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center, serving her community as a Maternal Fetal Medicine Nurse Practitioner. She has received many awards for her contributions in nursing clinically and within the community. Her life shifted in 2006 when she became a donor mom. This loss exposed her to the increasing health disparities around tissue and organ donation. To bridge this gap, she founded Brandon’s Crossroads Foundation Inc., a non-profit foundation whose mission is to educate adolescents on tissue and organ donation. She obtained her Doctorate from Northern Consortium of Nursing Practice, in June 2014 and has continued research in this field of tissue and organ donation education. 

Justin Lazzara, MIM, MBA, CTBS

Justin Lazzara is a regenerative marketing professional within the Zimmer Biomet Dental division, where he leads the Regenerative Specialist Sales Team and directs the $65M comprehensive regenerative portfolio for the company. His experience in the medical devise/regeneration business, specifically the dental implant/oral reconstructive therapy arena, exceeds 20 years. Specifically, Justin creates strategies to grow and educate dental surgeons on the safe and effective use of their surgical and grafting solutions. He has proven success in launching innovative bone/tissue-based products in the market. Justin holds two Master’s degrees in business: one for Global Management from Thunderbird School of Business, and the second for Management, Marketing and Finance from the University of Miami. He is a Certified Tissue Bank Specialist.