Dr. Kristina Davis Elected Co-Chair of the Transplant Diagnostics Community of Practice

By Lynn McCain | April 27 2022

Congratulations to Dr. Kristina Davis, who was just elected Co-Chair of the Transplant Diagnostics Community of Practice (TxDxCOP) for the American Society of Transplantation (AST). Davis will assume her position as Co-Chair at the Amertican Transplant Congress meeting in Boston this June. She is replacing Dr. Evan Farkash, who will serve as Chair of this committee. Davis will hold a senior leadership position on this committee for the next 6-years (2 years each as Co-Chair, Chair, and Past-Chair). With this election, the top two leadership positions of the committee will be from Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology.

The TxDx COP is a community of physicians and other providers within the American Society of Transplantation who share an interest in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, the HLA lab, and molecular diagnostics. The Executive Committee of the TxDx COP organizes educational activities and provides input on new test development, test utilization, practice standards, and regulatory policy relating to transplant pathology.

Davis remarked on her election, "The American Society of Transplantation (AST) is a multidisciplinary organization that brings together specialists from across the different disciplines involved in solid organ transplantation. I first had the opportunity to be involved with the Transplant Diagnostics Community of Practice (TxDx COP) executive committee as a trainee, and was subsequently elected as a member at large, which only furthered my appreciation for the role it can play in the transplant community. Now as co-chair and subsequently chair of the TxDx COP, I look forward to the challenges and opportunities to provide educational content and promote cross-disciplinary projects. The goal is to foster community engagement and learning, and to further the field of transplantation by facilitating collaborative discourse and research. Honestly, this is both an exciting and a daunting prospect. I am incredibly lucky to work with our own Evan Farkash as the incoming chair, as well as the other members of TxDx COP executive committee and the AST community at large.

"These are interesting times for transplant diagnostics – there has been explosive growth in commercial and non-commercial molecular tests, and transplant providers will be looking to the AST and the TxDxCOP for guidance," said Farkash.  "I am eagerly anticipating Dr. Davis’s leadership of our 475+ member community within our professional society over the next 6 years."

Please join us in congratulating both Davis and Farkash on these important leadership roles.