UNOS Fills Key Positions Roger Brown to lead Policy and Community Relations; Melissa Lane heads up Organ Center
Richmond, VA
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September 03, 2021 10:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is pleased to announce the promotion of Roger Brown to director of Policy and Community Relations and Melissa Lane to director of the Organ Center. Brown and Lane bring almost 45 years of combined experience at UNOS to these key leadership roles.
In his new position Brown leads the team that facilitates transplant policy development by engaging the community, with a focus on including the expertise and voices of all stakeholders – the public, patients, donor families, and donation and transplant professionals.
“Roger has been a leader at UNOS for many years providing unique insight into operationalizing policy changes,” said UNOS CEO Brian Shepard. “His unparalleled depth of knowledge and practical experience around organ allocation make him the perfect person to lead the policy team and the community as we apply a transformational policy framework to organ allocation in the United States.”
Brown joined UNOS in 1995 as an organ placement specialist and served in a series of increasingly senior managerial roles, most recently Organ Center director. A member of NATCO – The Organization for Donation and Transplant Professionals, Brown has served as faculty for their course for new transplant coordinators. Additionally, he has co-authored of a number of journal articles on various issues in transplantation.
As Director of the Organ Center, Melissa Lane is responsible for the leadership and direction of all areas of the Organ Center , from overseeing daily operations to maintaining the Organ Center’s performance metrics and quality improvement initiatives. The Organ Center is open around the clock, 365 days a year, to assist member organizations with organ allocation, transportation, and maintenance of the national transplant waiting list.
"Over the past year Melissa and her team have helped members successfully navigate changes in allocating kidneys while collaborating with other departments to bring innovative solutions to the organ donation and transplantation community, said UNOS CEO Brian Shepard. "They were instrumental in the development of a screening tool to accelerate organ offers, UNOS' organ tracking system and an organ travel app that is now being piloted with organ procurement organizations.
Lane worked in the Organ Center in positions of increasing responsibility since join UNOS in 2003 as an organ placement specialist. Most recently she served as the acting director of the Organ Center and before that had been an Organ Center manager for six years.
Both Brown and Lane hold bachelor’s degrees in biology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Lane is currently in an MBA program at Longwood University.
About United Network for Organ Sharing
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a non-profit, charitable organization that serves as the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under contract with the federal government. The OPTN helps create and define organ allocation and distribution policies that make the best use of donated organs. This process involves continuously evaluating new advances and discoveries so policies can be adapted to best serve patients waiting for transplants. All transplant programs and organ procurement organizations throughout the country are OPTN members and are obligated to follow the policies the OPTN creates for allocating organs.
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