2026 Governing Board

OFFICERS

Chair: Sameer Brahmavar (Prairie Village, Kan.)

Vice Chair: Sean Kumer, MD, PhD, FACS (Vice President and Surgical Director, Liver Transplantation | The University of Kansas Health System)

Second Vice Chair: Carol Perry, RN, BSN, FACHE (Topeka, Kan.)

Immediate Past Chair: Stevan Whitt, MD (Chief Medical Officer | University of Missouri Health Care)

BOARD MEMBERS

Michael Borkon, MD (Mission Hills, Kan.)

Reagan Cussimanio, JD (Director of Governmental Affairs | The University of Kansas Health System)

Jeremy Drinkwitz (President, Mercy Joplin Communities | Mercy Hospital Joplin)

Michael R. Dunaway (President | Dunaway Consulting Group)

Anne Gulotta (Leawood, Kan.)

Richard Muther, MD (Founding Partner | Kidney Associates of Kansas City)

Sarah Oakley, RN, MSN (Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer | NKC Health)

Brad Warady, MD (Division Director, Pediatric Nephrology | Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City)

Andrew Widman, CLF (Senior Financial Advisor | Principal National Life Insurance Company)

2026 Advisory Board

OFFICER

Chair: Dana Buchmueller, RN (Intensive Care Unit | Research Medical Center)

BOARD MEMBERS

Doris C. Agwu, MPH (Assistant Dean, Inclusive Excellence | UMKC School of Medicine)

Tracie Baker (Donor Family Member | Kansas City, Mo.)

Christina Bishop, PhD (Chief of Laboratory Services | Midwest Transplant Network)

Marshaun Butler (Chief Operating Officer | Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City)

Jimi Cook, DVM, PhD, OTSC (Director of Thompson Laboratory for Regenerative Orthopaedics | University of Missouri Health Care)

Pranavkumar Dalal, MD (Nephrologist | Research Medical Center)

Wendy Doyle (President & CEO | United WE)

Jameson Forster, MD (Transplant Surgeon | Saint Luke’s Hospital Kansas City)

Will Gibson, DO (Surgical Director, Cardiac Transplantation; Associate Program Director, Pediatric Congenital Heart Surgery Fellowship | Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City)

Christine Hamele (Assistant Vice President, Public Relations and Community Affairs | HCA Midwest Health System)

Jessica Heimes, DO (Transplant Surgeon, Mid-America Heart Institute | Saint Luke’s Hospital Kansas City)

George Herrera (Executive Vice President of Donor Services | MTF Biologics)

James D. Kaplan, MD (Pulmonary/Internal Medicine | Kansas Pulmonary & Sleep Specialists)

Amy Keith, RN (Assistant CNO | Wesley Medical Center)

Amy Peters McTaggart, RN, MBA, DNP (Chief Nursing Officer | University Health)

Todd Murphy, MD (General and Critical Care Surgeon | Ascension Via Christi St. Francis)

Naftali Presser, MD (Transplant Surgeon | Research Medical Center)

Steve Reintjes Jr., MD (Neurosurgeon | NKC Health)

Yvette Richards, DMin (Director of Community Connections and Mission | St. James United Methodist Church)

Tiffany Scheffler (National Kidney Foundation)

Timothy Schmitt, MD (Director of Transplantation | The University of Kansas Health System)

Mark Wakefield, MD (Transplant Surgeon | University of Missouri Health Care)

EMERITUS BOARD MEMBERS

Thomas H. Estep, MD (Wichita, Kan.)

Gilbert Ross Jr., MD (University of Missouri Health Care)

GENERAL COUNSEL

Salama Gallimore, JD (General Counsel & Advisor on Gov’t Affairs | Midwest Transplant Network)