Galen V. Henderson, MD SEED Program

The Galen V. Henderson SEED Program is an 8-week immersive experience to raise awareness about the role of organ donation and transplantation in healthcare, to understand the full scope of inequities in transplantation, and to learn about potential career paths in organ donation and transplantation.

In its 2022 report, Realizing the Promise of Equity in the Organ Transplantation System, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that “…the current organ transplantation system is demonstrably inequitable.”

• Donor registration rates among black, Asian, and Hispanic Americans are lower compared to other racial and ethnic groups
• Black patients are less likely than white patients to be preemptively referred for transplant evaluation
• Black, Asian, and Hispanic patients have substantially lower rates of living donor kidney transplantation compared to white patients
• Only 4% of transplant surgeons and physicians are Black

In 2022, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) medical schools to improve donation and transplantation among Black Americans by diversifying the workforce and broadening outreach to minority communities. NEDS is indebted to those who pioneered this program concept, especially Dr. Clive Callender and Dr. James Hildreth.  The SEED Program reflects our efforts to emulate and expand upon this innovative program by providing medical students in New England with the opportunity to learn more about and to improve equity in organ donation and transplantation.

To meet the program’s objectives, SEED Program students:

• Participate in weekly seminars, roundtable discussions, and journal club, led by nationally recognized leaders, on all aspects of organ donation and transplantation.
• Engage in experiential learning opportunities, which include observing organ donor recovery and organ transplantation surgery, real-time observation of organ matching/offers/allocation decisions, interacting with transplant patients and organ donor families, and networking with organ donation and transplantation experts.
• Attend community-based events designed to increase organ donation awareness
• Complete a mentored scholarly project and presentation

Guidance, mentorship, and additional social networking opportunities throughout the 8-week program are provided.

Dr. Galen V. Henderson was the Associate Medical Director of New England Donor Services and the recipient of three awards from the Department of Health and Human Services for his contributions to the field of organ donation. He served in several national leadership roles in organ donation and was instrumental in standardizing neurocritical pathways in the context of organ donation.

Dr. Henderson’s commitment to organ donation was inspired by a patient he encountered during his first year of residency.

“I was on call and there was a patient at the hospital who had a possible neurological catastrophe, and I was asked to go into the operating room to see the patient. After examining the patient, I called my attending to discuss what was going on, and it dawned on me that this person probably was in the early phase of meeting the criteria for brain death. I learned about the opportunities of people who could be saved, and that person did donate and saved seven other people, and that was truly, truly impactful for me.” (The Alliance, reprinted with permission)

A Mississippi native, Dr. Henderson graduated from Tougaloo College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Jackson, Mississippi. He completed medical school at Brown University and then did his residency in the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Training Program. Following his fellowship in Neurocritical Care, he was appointed to the faculty of the Harvard Medical School and joined the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As the first Black neurointensivist in the United States, he became Director of Neurocritical Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2001.

In 2020, Dr. Henderson was tapped to serve as the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was an obvious choice for this position considering his nearly three decades of commitment to mentoring hundreds of students, residents, and faculty, and his passionate advocacy for those underrepresented in medicine. As CDIO, he led the recruitment and retention of a diverse group of faculty and trainees, worked selflessly to create a welcoming environment, and provided career support and leadership advancement opportunities for others until his untimely death in 2023.

“It is said that a person’s life can be measured by the good they do — their compassion, integrity, and positive influence on the world. By that standard, Dr. Henderson leaves behind an inspired and tremendous legacy, one that lives on in the thousands of patients, families, colleagues, and mentees whose lives he touched.” [Robert S.D. Higgins, MD, BWH President]

The SEED Program continues Dr. Henderson’s legacy by educating the next generation of physicians, including those from groups Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM), about organ donation and transplantation, diversifying the professional workforce in organ donation, and eliminating inequity in organ donation and transplantation.

The SEED Program is an 8-week, 25 to 30 hours per week, immersive learning experience in which students engage in seminars, round-table and journal club discussions, mentored scholarly projects, experiential activities, and community and stakeholder engagement.

The majority of the SEED Program experience occurs at New England Donor Services offices in Waltham, Massachusetts. Seminars meet in person from 9 am to 3 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. The format for both days looks much like the following:

National and international experts give lectures and lead discussions on many topics, such as:

• Organ failure and transplantation
• The history of organ donation and transplantation
• Donor management and organ recovery
• Organ allocation, policies, and practices
• Racial disparities
• Ethical considerations
• Emerging innovations in organ donation and transplantation

Also, journal club discussions, conversations with organ donation and transplant leaders, and interactions with donor families and transplant recipients are part of the seminar series.

In addition to attending these seminars, students are required to complete a mentored scholarly project related to organ donation. The nature of the scholarly project is broadly defined and can be a research study, an analysis of existing local or national data, or a scoping review of a particular topic, among others. Students are mentored by experienced researchers at NEDS with academic appointments in the Harvard Medical School and research collaborations nationally.

Over the course of 8 weeks, students are required to engage in several experiential learning opportunities, which include observing organ donor and tissue donor recovery cases, observing a transplant surgery, observing a transplant patient selection meeting, talking to an organ donor family about their donation experience and its meaning for them, talking to a transplant patient about their experience, real-time listening in on an organ or tissue family approach by telephone, and attending a NEDS community or stakeholder donation event (e.g., talking to students in a driver’s education class, staff a donation table at a community event, lead an organ donation discussion with medical students, etc.).

At the end of the 8-week program, students present their scholarly project and discuss the highlights of their SEED Program experience during a celebratory luncheon at New England Donor Services.

To qualify for the program, one must be a (a) full-time student in good standing at a medical school in New England, and (b) a U.S. Citizen, Permanent Resident of the U.S., or U.S. Noncitizen National

Applications to the 2025 SEED Program session will be accepted from October 15, 2024, to December 15, 2024. Interviews will be conducted with top applicants in January/February 2025, and selection decisions will be announced by February 15, 2025.

Follow the link below to complete your application. As part of the application, you’ll be asked to upload two documents: (1) a Brief Personal Statement (max 450 words) describing your reasons for applying to the SEED Program and how you believe the program will help in your personal and professional development, and (2) your resume or CV. We encourage you to have these documents ready before completing the application online.

Also, for your application to be considered, a signed and dated letter of recommendation on institutional letterhead from your medical school advisor must be sent to the SEED Program Director by the application deadline. In addition to commenting on your qualifications and character, this letter should also confirm your medical school enrollment and your good standing within the program.

Mark Brevard

Director, Multicultural Community Outreach, New England Donor Services

Email: mark_brevard@neds.org