Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Free is a Medical Officer in CDC's Office of Blood, Organ, and Other Tissue Safety. She trained in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Preventive Medicine and is a graduate of CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Fellowship. She joined CDC in 2015 and has worked on the agency's Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19 responses. Her current research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, specifically as it relates to blood transfusion and organ and tissue safety.

Noah Schwartz is a physician and epidemiologist in the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination at CDC, where has worked since 2019 investigating TB outbreaks and epidemiology. He co-led CDC's investigation of the 2021 nationwide TB outbreak linked to a bone graft product.

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.

Emily L. Carter, CTBS, CEBT, is the Senior Account Manager for Donor Services at LeMaitre, Inc. Based in Salem, Massachusetts, she has steadily advanced her career in tissue recovery since 2015. Emily is an active member of the AATB community, contributing to the AATB RADE council and Education Committee, with a focus on providing diverse educational resources. Her current role spans the nation, where she oversees cardiovascular field training, tissue partner webinars, and serves as a vital link between tissue leaders and recovery teams. With a diverse medical background, Emily excels in communication with all stakeholders in the organ, eye and tissue donation industry.

Stefan Bernal is the Manager of National Recovery Network at LifeNet Health - he joined the team in 2018. Since his onboarding, his focus has been fostering healthy relationships with organizations and their front-line staff all throughout the United States. He has been an advocate for the highest standards and quality that LifeNet Health represents. Prior to LifeNet Health, Stefan worked at Nevada Donor Network, where he served as the Clinical Training and Development Coordinator. He is proudly from the Midwest, specifically a small town called Peru, Illinois. Stefan received his Certified Tissue Banking Specialist (CTBS) certification in 2016. He genuinely wants to change the world. Lastly, he likes long walks on the beach and gets frustrated writing his own bio.

Anna McDonald, M.D. - Medical Director Birth Tissue Recovery, LLC Winston-Salem, North Carolina Dr. McDonald completed her medical degree at Duke University Medical School prior to her training at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (Anatomic and Clinical Pathology residency), Harvard-affiliated Boston Children's Hospital (Pediatric Pathology fellowship), and the Boston Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (Forensic Pathology fellowship). She served as a staff Pediatric Pathologist at Boston Children's Hospital and a Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2014, she joined the Wake Forest Department of Pathology as an Assistant Professor of Pathology with specialty interests in forensic/autopsy pathology and perinatal/placental pathology. She was appointed as Medical Examiner for the State of North Carolina since 2014. She joined Birth Tissue Recovery, LLC as Medical Director in 2016, allowing her to integrate her expertise in placental/perinatal pathology and tissue and organ donor service experience. She is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Forensic Pathology, Pediatric Pathology, and Anatomic and Clinical Pathology.

Kimberly Monroe is the Business Development Manager for Tissue Services at South Texas Blood & Tissue, responsible for the strategic direction and growth of STBT’s Hospital Development program. Kimberly started her career in donation and transplantation in 2001 and has experience in donor screening, family consent and aftercare, hospital development, and community relations in the eye and tissue donation arena. She has served on the AATB Donor Family Services council since 2020.

Kimberly holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Florida, a Graduate Certificate in instructional design from Rollins College, and an AATB Certified Tissue Banking Specialist designation.

Heather Hoog is the Donation Program Manager at the Lions Eye Institute for Transplant and Research in Tampa, Florida. She manages a team that serves as donation educators and liaisons between the Lions Eye Institute ocular and musculoskeletal recovery teams, administration, and the partner facilities. Heather and her team partner with four different Organ Procurement Organizations, over 200 medical centers, 25 medical examiner and coroner offices, and numerous hospice and funeral home directors in multiple states. During the merger of RTI Donor Services and Lions Eye Institute for Transplant and Research in 2018, Heather was instrumental in combining two large Florida-based non-profit tissue banks with a seamless continuum of service. Previously, Heather was a career firefighter paramedic, a team member on multiple international medical and malnutrition clinics, and got her start as a CTBS certified recovery technician for Southeast Tissue Alliance, Regenerative Biologics, and RTI Donor Services. Heather's valued leadership style focuses on flexible communication with an emphasis on self-awareness. Credibility and the cultivation of relationships are earned through trust and respect - remain open to new ideas, inquiry, and constructive criticism. She believes an organization that values self-awareness gains the most respect amongst the community.

With more than 25 years of experience in grief support, Susan has worked with children, adults, individuals, and families in a variety of settings to include 2 children’s hospitals, a grief support center, a hospice liaison, and currently as a tissue donor aftercare specialist.  Susan joined the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center’s tissue services team in 2015 as the Grief Support Programs/Services Manager. She is responsible for overseeing the Grief Support & Life Legacies Program/Services for tissue donor families. 

Susan has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and sociology from the University of California at Davis, and a Masters of Science in Child Development/Child Life from the University of La Verne in California.

After earning a BS in microbiology from McNeese State University and finishing up 6 years as a special operations forward air controller in the Louisiana Air National Guard, Kip Hanks began employment with the FDA as a field investigator in 1997. After a few years as a generalist covering multiple FDA-regulated products, he became a district biologics specialist and then the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) biologics national expert. In this role, Kip was responsible for providing regulatory and guidance interpretation and application to ORA staff, training and mentoring new investigators, serving on policy and document workgroups and advising ORA senior leadership on biologics-related matters. In July 2021, he joined the American Association of Tissue Banks as its first director of regulatory and governmental affairs. In this role, Kip establishes and communicates the AATB official position regarding regulatory issues that may impact AATB member organizations to the FDA and other applicable governmental and standard-setting organizations. He provides expert interpretation, guidance, strategy and counsel on existing laws, regulations, standards, and guidance that impact AATB members.

As Exsurco’s leader of their Amalgatome devices, Codi helps burn clinicians solve challenges in excision and skin grafting.  Codi is available to assist surgical and burn centers in clinical evaluations, data collection, training labs and to provide support during burn and trauma procedures.

Codi has performed over 2,000 tissue recovery procedures resulting in life-saving allografts used in burn and trauma, cardiac and vascular applications.  He is sitting for the Certified Wound Care Specialist (CWS) this summer, adding that certification to his credentials. 

Adam helps maximize clinician experience with the Exsurco’s burn and surgical applications.  He leads training labs for our customers, conducts in-services, attends initial cases, assists in clinical evaluations of the system, works closely with Sterile Processing Departments and compiles documentation to support Value Analysis requirements. 

Adam has recovered over 16,000 life-saving skin allografts in his 11+ years as a Certified Tissue Banking Specialist (CTBS).  He plans to add Certified Wound Care Specialist (CWS) to his credentials soon.

Ryan’s passion is for training customers to ensure Exsurco products and services add value to the work they do every day.  In this role, he provides hands-on training programs, conducting in-services, providing product troubleshooting support regarding safety, handling, operation, and maintenance of the products in tissue banks.

Ryan understands the value of fostering a team approach to recovery based on his 14 years of experience in the Tissue Banking industry.  His guidance helps significantly increase split-thickness skin recovery yields at every site visited.

With Exsurco since its inception in 2010, Amber led the company’s growth into tissue and surgical settings to redefine excision science.  She supports Exsurco’s community of healthcare professional customers who are advancing the healing power of skin to patients who need it the most.

Uncovering customer needs, problem-solving, and providing solutions is nothing new to Amber who started her career as a Surgical Technician and Combat Medic in the U.S. Army.  After completing active duty, she remained in the reserves and found her home in the transplant industry at Lifeline of Ohio.  Her second day on the job was the September 11^th attacks on our nation and Amber knew then saving lives would become her lifelong passion.

Amber worked with the team of engineers that developed the Amalgatome MD for skin grafting procedures in tissue donation, which since 2010 has resulted in over half a million life-saving dermal allografts for burn survivors.

Exsurco is proud to be a partner of the Phoenix Society and The Spiegel Burn Foundation for Burn Survivors and an advocate for Tissue Donation Across America through Donate Life America and the American Association of Tissue Banks.

Jo Grubman has been working in tissue recovery since 2014, initially operating as a Tissue Surgical Recovery Coordinator and Team Leader at New England Donor Services, and later as National Trainer for LeMaitre Vascular. She is currently the National Trainer/Donor Services Account Manager for LeMaitre Vascular.

She received her bachelor’s degree in English Language/Communications from University of Rochester, and has a background as a paramedic in Boston and the surrounding area. Her training focuses heavily on hands-on, in-person instruction, which she believes to be the most effective tool in helping those in tissue recovery learn and grow, with a secondary emphasis on creating videos, presentations, and other materials that aim to supplement hands-on case training. She also believes that trainer presence in the operating room/recovery suite setting is essential in connecting with staff and the donation community.

Her ultimate goal as a trainer in the field of donation is to support field staff in any way possible, including assisting and training in a physical sense, but also answering questions and discussing the stresses of working in the donation field in an attempt to prevent burnout. If you have any questions regarding the materials presented here, or about tissue recovery in general, please reach out to jgrubman@lemaitre.com.   

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. 

Corinne is the Executive Director, Chief Operations Officer, and Treasurer of the Anatomy Gifts Registry (AGR), a non-profit whole body donation program. AGR is one of the accredited Non-transplant Anatomic Donation Organizations, or NADOs. Corinne has over 12 years of experience in non-transplant tissue banking ranging from donor family services through research client services and executive management. Corinne has been active in the AATB Ad-Hoc committee, recently turned council, working on the physical assessment and risk assessment guidance documents, among other projects. 

Corinne has Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees in human nutrition, focusing on clinical nutrition and epidemiology, and has completed her clinical dietetic internship at the University of Maryland,Medical Center, and holds a Registered Dietitian (RD) credential, and has been a Certified Tissue Banking Specialist (CTBS) since 2009.

John is a Regulatory Affairs Specialist II at StimLabs, LLC. John has a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Auburn University and a Master’s Degree in Regulatory Affairs from the University of Georgia. John is an expert in the regulation of both HCT/Ps and medical devices, including Quality System regulations, submissions, registration and licensure.