Dr. Newell graduated from Kalamazoo College and the University of Michigan Medical School. Following a residency in general surgery at Loyola University Medical Center, he obtained a PhD in immunology and completed a fellowship in transplantation surgery at the University of Chicago. After seven years as a faculty member at the University of Chicago, he moved to Emory University, where he is Professor of Surgery and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Newell’s clinical practice focuses on kidney transplantation in adults and children, pancreas transplantation, and living kidney donation. His research interests span the spectrum from basic laboratory investigation to clinical trials focusing on alloimmunity, immunosuppression, and tolerance. He has lead numerous studies supported by the NIH and the Immune Tolerance Network.
Dr. Newell has served the transplant community in a variety of roles. He is a Past President of the American Society of Transplantation. He has served the NIH sponsored Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation (CTOT) consortium in many different roles. He is an associate editor for the American Journal of Transplantation and previously served as a member of the NIH study section Transplantation, Tolerance, and Tumor Immunology. He currently serves as an AST representative on the Transplant Therapeutics Consortium and is the co-chair of Workgroup 1, which is focused on gaining regulatory endorsement of new surrogate endpoints for clinical trials.
Anne B. Lawler, CSW, LCSW, ACSW, BCD, is a licensed clinical social worker in New York State. She has extensive experience in social work with transplantation support groups and mentoring programs.
Dr. Russell Crew specializes in Nephrology, with a special focus on Transplant Medicine-Kidney and Transplant Medicine-Pancreas. He practices primarily in New York, NY, and is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Crew graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1999, and completed his training at NY Presby-Columbia and NY Presby-Columbia. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology.
Dr. Nicole M. Ali is an assistant professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, Medical Director of kidney and pancreas transplantation, and Director of Outreach. Following completion of her undergraduate degree at Brown University she joined the Americorp Program, Teach for America. She earned her Medical degree from SUNY – Stony Brook. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology and is an AST/ASN certified transplant nephrologist, trained at Columbia University Medical Center, NY.
She has held positions as the Chief of Transplantation at Hackensack University Medical Center for the kidney and pancreas transplant programs and the Medical Director of the kidney transplant program at North Shore University Hospital. She has extensive experience working with programs that experienced outcome issues including system improvement agreements and structuring transplant quality programs. She has published many articles in peer reviewed journals and presents lectures locally and internationally. Her current areas of research include increasing access to transplantation, improving organ utilization and novel desensitization strategies.
Michael J. Goldstein MD FACS Dr. Goldstein is Director of the Division of Organ Transplantation at Hackensack University Medical Center and Hackensack Meridian Health. He is Professor of Surgery at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and the OPTN Surgical Program Director for adult and pediatric kidney transplantation, and pancreas transplantation. Prior to joining Hackensack Meridian Health, he served as Chief of Kidney Transplantation at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Executive Director, Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency. With surgical, academic, and executive experience in both organ donation and transplantation, Dr. Goldstein focuses his career on improving patient access to organ transplantation with the goal of maximizing the utilization of living and deceased donor organs for transplantation. Dr. Goldstein is an advisor for the OPTN Expeditious Task Force, faculty member of the ESRD Treatment Choices Learning Collaborative, and active participant of the OPTN Transplant Center Growth Collaborative. In prior years, he served nationally with HRSA to improve transplant center quality on the Transplant Center Task Force and Co-Chaired the National Learning Congress for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice. He also served as Vice-Chair of the UNOS Organ Availability Committee and the Medical Directors Council of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations. Board-certified by the American Board of Surgery, Dr. Goldstein is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, member of the American Society for Transplant Surgeons, and American Society for Transplantation. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania and his Doctor of Medicine degree at Temple University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in General Surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center and transplantation fellowship at the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Newell came to Emory from the University of Chicago, where he had been serving as director of kidney and pancreas transplantation. Prior to joining the faculty of UChicago, he earned his PhD in immunology and completed an abdominal transplantation fellowship at the institution. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan and completed his general surgery residency at Loyola Medical Center in Illinois.
Dr. Newell served as director of Emory’s living donor kidney transplant program from 2003-2014 and established Emory’s unrelated paired donor kidney exchange program in 2007. His various research pursuits have included optimizing belatacept as an immunosuppressant in renal transplantation, identification and mechanistic investigations of tolerant kidney transplant patients, and the development of transplant strategies uniquely responsive to the needs of children
Dr. Newell served as president of the American Society of Transplantation from 2014-2015, was an at large member of the OPTN/UNOS Vascularized Composite Allograft Transplant (VCA) Committee from 2013-2016, and chaired the Mechanistic Studies Subcommittee of the Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation program of the NIH.
Dr. Katz has served as Chief Medical Officer of Eledon since November 2023. He joined Eledon Pharmaceuticals from eGenesis where he served as Chief Medical Officer. Prior to eGenesis, Dr. Katz was Vice President of Clinical Development first at Viela Bio and then at Horizon Therapeutics following its acquisition of Vielo Bio. At Horizon and Viela Bio, Dr. Katz led the clinical development of inebilizumab in multiple autoimmune indications and oversaw the regulatory submission and approval of UPLIZNA®(inebilizumab). Prior to Viela Bio, Dr. Katz served as Senior Director of Clinical Development at MedImmune Inc. and Senior Director of Transplantation with the Medicine Development Group at Pfizer. Before joining industry, Dr. Katz spent two decades as a transplant surgeon. He was director of the abdominal transplantation division at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, and an associate professor of surgery and the director of the liver transplantation division at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, MA. Dr. Katz earned his M.D. at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical School in Jerusalem.