Kraig Markland received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life Chiropractic College, a postgraduate degree in forensics from the National University of Heath Sciences. He retired from private practice, started a second career working as a tissue recovery tech at Iowa Donor Network, and earned his CTBS. At Live On Nebraska, he was a Professional Outreach Specialist and coordinated recovery activities with funeral professionals, law enforcement investigators, and pathologists. He has also completed a Medicolegal Death Investigator course and has received a Mortuary Science degree. Currently working at Tennessee Donor Services as a Funeral Home/Medical Examiner Liaison.  

Chas MacKenzie is a member of the Tissue Donation Services (TDS) leadership team at New England Donor Services. Chas supervises the Hospital Development Strategist (TDS) team maintaining collaborative relationships with 105 smaller service area hospitals. Chas also supervises the funeral home & medical examiner manager for all New England states. Chas is responsible for planning, development, implementation and evaluation of strategic donation development activities in support of the vision, goals and objectives of New England Donor Services for maximizing organ and tissue donation.  Chas began his work in organ and tissue donation at Hartford Organ Procurement Organization as an organ and tissue recovery specialist in 1992.

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Alli Reilly currently works as a Tissue Family Services Coordinator at Infinite Legacy, supporting families through Tissue and Eye donation in Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia. She has also worked in ICUs throughout Maryland supporting families of Organ, Tissue and Eye donation as an Organ Family Services Coordinator. She has 5 years of experience in donation, and prior to her time in our industry, was a Certified Child Life Specialist for 13 years supporting pediatric patients and their families in Radiation Oncolgy and Adolescent Medicine at Johns Hopkins and in Pediatic Oncology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Alli holds a master's degree in Applied Developmental Psychology. When not supporting donor families, she likes being outside at the baseball field or driving range with her son and husband, or hiking and riding bikes with her daughter. 

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.

Stephen has served as Associate General Counsel to Gift of Life Donor Program (“GLDP”) for more than 14 years. He advises GLDP on a variety of issues including regulatory compliance, contracting, litigation and government relations. 

Lindsay has been a dedicated professional in tissue banking for the past 16 years, currently serving as the Director of Tissue Services and Supply Chain for the Indiana Donor Network. With extensive experience in tissue recovery, regulatory compliance, supply chain management, and leadership. Certified as a CTBS since 2009, Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Arts from Ball State University and a Master of Business Administration with a focus on Healthcare Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Joel continues to lead the DCI Donor Services to record-breaking tissue recovery milestones. He is most proud of the innovations and progress his team has made in streamlining procedures that reduce redundancy and increase efficiency while improving benchmarks for recovery metrics. He began his career at Mississippi Organ Recovery Organization, then served at Donor Network West and LifeShare of Oklahoma.

 As past Chair of the AOPO Tissue Council, Joel made it his mission to increase collaboration among tissue recovery organizations. Joel is a graduate of the Art and Science of Leadership program at Wharton’s School of Business and earned a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Exercise Physiology from Mississippi State University. Joel is a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

With over a decade of dedication to the Indiana Donor Network, Sara serves as the Director over Vital Link Donation Center and Logistics. Prior to this role, her career was rooted in healthcare operations at two of Indiana’s major health systems. Sara earned her Master’s in Public Health from Purdue University and hold a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton—go Flyers!

Rodney Cruz is responsible for the educational program planning and operations of the LIFT Simulation (SIM) Center. He trains and educates team members on the transfer of knowledge and protocols into “real-life” clinical experiences. Rodney helps to facilitate participants’ utilization of simulation education to optimize their confidence and skill competency of current practices in organ, donation and transplantation medicine.

A LifeGift team member for more than 12 years, Rodney collaborates closely with his colleagues. “My role is to provide LifeGift team members and hospital partners with a safe learning environment with comprehensive instruction on each step of the donation process,” says Rodney. “The LIFT SIM Center is comprised of an intensive care unit and operating room to simulate what takes place in the hospitals without having to wait for case activity. By having a controlled environment for learning, the SIM Center provides our team members with the confidence to perform while in the field.” 

Prior to joining LifeGift, Rodney worked as a respiratory therapist at Texas Children’s Hospital. “My sister, Katherine Cruz, introduced me to LifeGift,” shares Rodney. “She had worked at LifeGift for four years and always talked about how much she enjoyed her job. She was relocating and was asked to recommend a replacement. I applied shortly after and have enjoyed working for LifeGift ever since.”

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.

Tricia Samaniego Martinez currently serves as a Senior Advisor for the Office of Biologics Inspectorate (OBI), Immediate Office, within the Office of Inspections and Investigations at the US Food and Drug Administration. After receiving her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Texas A&M University, she joined the FDA as an Investigator. She has worked in the Houston and San Antonio offices conducting inspections and investigations in the Biologics, Human and Animal Drug, and Bioresearch Monitoring programs, in both the domestic and foreign arenas.

Tricia most recently served as the Division Director of Investigations where she was responsible for leading a team of managers and investigators, primarily located in the western half of the US, during a time of quickly evolving technologies in the biologics industry. The staff under her management conducted inspections and investigations of establishments handling biological products, including blood and blood components, Source Plasma, and human cell, tissue, and cellular based tissue products.
As a Senior Advisor, she is responsible for working directly with OBI management, as well as cross-organizational leadership in developing, recommending, and coordinating operational priorities, activities and resources to ensure consistency and optimization throughout the program. In addition, she is responsible for advising OBI leadership on emerging and precedent-setting issues, representing OBI on Agency level work groups and leading multiple trainings.

I graduated St. Louis University School of Medicine. My anatomic/clinical pathology residency program was University of Missouri, Kansas City. I completed fellowships in Transfusion Medicine and Cytopathology at the University of Colorado. I have been an Associate Medical Director at AlloSource for approximately 2 1/2 years. I am CTBS certified. I am a member of the AATB Physicians Council and I served on the Monkey Pox Physicians Council Work group.

Haydee Barno is the Director of Education at the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) and is responsible for the management and execution of educational programs and the Certified Tissue Bank Specialist program. Prior to joining AATB, Haydee was the Director of Education at the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, a professional society dedicated to advancing the science of clinical pharmacology and to engage in educational efforts in the interest of Members, the clinical pharmacology community, and the public. During her tenure, Haydee was responsible for directing the planning and execution of the society’s continuing medical and pharmacy education programs. Haydee has been in the non-profit sector for over 20 years holding different positions including continuing education and certification programs.

Haydee earned her law degree from the Universidad Americana of Managua (UAM) and earned her MBA at Strayer University in Washington, DC. She is fluent in English and Spanish.

Erik Fay is a 2011 graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. There he studied Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice and a minor in Psychology. He served as a law enforcement officer for 6 years, receiving multiple Merit Awards and even a Life Saving Award. Erik began his work in the transplant field in 2018 as a Tissue Donation Coordinator with New England Donor Services. During his time in the Tissue Operations Department, he became a subject matter expert in tissue donation. Erik achieved the title of Certified Tissue Banking Specialist in 2020. After working as a Preceptor training new hires in the role, he was promoted to Tissue Operations Clinical Educator in March of 2024.

In her current role Gretchen leads the donor referral and donor services center for Tennessee Donor Services, Sierra Donor Services and New Mexico Donor Services.  Having the privilege to serve others working in donation for almost 20 years, Gretchen believes that the gift of donation can provide hope in some of life's darkest moments.

Gretchen holds her CTBS, CT.  She also earned her Bachelor of Science from University of Wisconsin- La Crosse and her Master of Arts in Counseling from Lakeland University.  She and her family currently live in Nashville, TN, but she still missed the winter in Wisconsin.

Wendy Garrison is part of the leadership team with the hospital-based organ procurement organization (OPO) in San Diego, California.   Lifesharing is a top-performing OPO serving a diverse population of just over 3.5 million in San Diego and Imperial Counties.  Wendy began her career as a Trauma nurse in Memphis, TN.  It was here Wendy discovered her passion for working with families who were experiencing trauma and end-of life.  She began working with the Memphis-based OPO in 2007 starting as a coordinator then joining the leadership team as Clinical Manager in 2010.  In 2014 she journeyed to the west coast and joined the Lifesharing team as Manager of Family Services and has remained a part of the leadership team currently serving as Director of Family Services and Donor Support. 

Mackenzie Ellis, Donor Services Specialist at Mid-America Transplant in Saint Louis, Missouri has over 10 years of Donor Services' experience. She is responsible for on-boarding new staff and focusing on developing best practices to enhance tissue authorization rates. As a subject matter expert, Mackenzie collaborates with Performance Excellence and Business Intelligence teams. Together, they have developed visual management tools to improve tissue authorization rates and are currently building advanced systems to provide real-time guidance for donation coordinators during tissue authorization conversations. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring new restaurants in the Saint Louis area.