candidate’s statement

Throughout my career, SPLIT has played a central role in my growth as a pediatric transplant hepatologist and has fostered relationships, opportunities, and collaborations that would otherwise not have been possible. Serving in this leadership role will allow me to give back to an organization that not only has shaped my career but one that truly drives meaningful and tangible progress in our field.

The mission of SPLIT is to “improve outcomes in children receiving liver transplantation through research, improving care, training and mentoring, and supporting children and families.” By serving in the vice president role, I am eager to continue working closely with the SPLIT executive council to achieve this mission. First, my experience in bridging collaboration across specialties in my leadership role at Texas Children’s Hospital will allow me to bring new perspectives and further strengthen cross-specialty collaboration across the pediatric transplant hepatology community. Expanding our reach beyond pediatric transplant hepatology is essential so that as a community we can share expertise, improve care delivery and accelerate innovation and research within our field. Second, as I have a strong commitment to education as seen through my roles within our training program and within SPLIT, serving in the vice president role will allow me to contribute to innovative ideas and expand opportunities for trainees and early-career professionals to engage in SPLIT, helping to cultivate the next generation of leaders in our field. Thirdly, at a time when we are witnessing transformative innovations in our field, SPLIT is well positioned to make a meaningful impact through research collaborations and continue to leverage its strength as a registry to impact use of technologies such as normothermic machine perfusion in our field. In the vice president role, I am eager to bring my clinical research experience as well as my experience as ROC chair to position SPLIT to become the “go-to” research registry for our pediatric liver transplant community. The future of our field requires not only ideas but also the organizational strength and persistence to bring them to fruition. Given my strong track record of service to SPLIT demonstrating my commitment, organizational skills, and ability to translate vision into action, I am eager to contribute to the organization at this next level. I value collaborative leadership, clear communication, and accountability, and I am focused on ensuring that initiatives lead to tangible outcomes that benefit patients and families. As vice president, I would be eager to help SPLIT executive council guide the organization through this exciting and rapidly evolving period, supporting high-impact research, fostering innovation in education and research, and strengthening the collaborative network that defines SPLIT.

Serving as Vice President would be both a privilege and a responsibility, and I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to continue contributing to SPLIT’s mission and its enduring impact on pediatric liver transplantation. SPLIT has truly molded my career into what it is today and having the opportunity to play a more active leadership role to impact the next generation and our patients and families would be a privilege.

candidate’s statement

I am passionate about improving the outcomes in children receiving liver transplantation, and SPLIT is the forefront society to lead this mission. As Chair of the Advocacy Committee, I had the unique opportunity to represent our society at many time points during the OPTN Modernization to help ensure that children, the most vulnerable transplant patients, had a voice during this time of change. If elected, I would continue to help SPLIT lead the way to achieve the ultimate goal of eliminating pediatric waitlist mortality- through advocacy, research, and education. We have a robust data set with our SPLIT registry, particularly now with the merger with UNOS data, and I hope to champion our members to pursue research projects to advance our improvements and outcomes in pediatric liver transplantation. This will be especially important as we are in an era with advances in surgical techniques which have the potential to have a significant benefit to children. We have grown as a society, particularly in the multi-disciplinary space, and I hope to continue to support our multi-disciplinary colleagues through growth of the committee and representation at our annual meetings, ensuring all of the individuals who care for transplant patients are represented and active in SPLIT. Much of the power of our society comes from our patients and parents; I had the pleasure of working closely with PFEP through my advocacy work and if elected look forward to continuing to support the amazing work they are accomplishing. I would be honored to serve as president-elect and future president of SPLIT.