DATE: April 7, 2022

Washington, DC (April 7, 2022) The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) is proud to announce the appointment of Martha Gershun in the role as Special Advisor. Gershun, a kidney donor, chronicled her journey in a book she co-authored entitled Kidney to Share, published by Cornell University Press in 2021.  

“It is an honor to be named Special Advisor to the Kidney Transplant Collaborative. As a living kidney donor, I am very familiar with the obstacles many kidney donors and patients encounter with the current transplant process,” noted Gershun. “Collaborating with KTC and their team of kidney and transplant experts to expand the living kidney donor program and to raise awareness to increase future kidney donors is necessary and essential to improve the current kidney transplant system.”

Gershun donated a kidney to Deb Porter Gill on September 28, 2018, after reading about her need for a transplant in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. Since becoming a living kidney donor, Gershun has also authored multiple articles about her experiences, sharing her valuable perspective that organ donors should be treated like philanthropists not vendors.  Gershun advocates to reduce financial, logistic, and psychosocial barriers to enable more people to become living donors to save the lives of kidney patients.  She has given presentations at more than thirty transplant clinics, medical schools, and bioethics centers on her experience as a living kidney donor. 

Lou Diamond, President and CEO of KTC shared his enthusiasm for the addition of Gershun as a Special Advisor. “We are fortunate to have Martha Gershun guiding us as we work with other stakeholders to expand living kidney donation,” he said. “Her experiences as a donor and her dedication to the kidney transplant community are both impressive and valuable to the community.” 

With over 35 years of leadership experience in Fortune 500 corporations, non-profit organizations, and start-up ventures, Gershun is now Principal of MG Consulting, assisting non-profits with strategic planning, marketing, executive coaching, leadership transition, fundraising, and board development.  She graduated cum laude from Harvard University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where she studied marketing, service operations, and customer experience. Additionally, Gershun earned a graduate diploma in economics from the University of Stirling in Scotland, where she was a Rotary International Fellow.   

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The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing kidney transplants and decreasing financial obstacles and other challenges kidney patients, donors, and their families experience with the kidney transplant process.