Realizing the Promise of Organ Transplantation

Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer is an internationally recognized physician executive who currently serves as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California Davis School of Medicine, and a Senior Scholar, Clinical Excellence Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine. He also is an Executive-in-Residence for Mission Mobile Medical and a senior advisor to several other entities. He has the rare distinction of being an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and National Academy of Public Administration.

Dr. Kizer previously has held senior leadership positions in state and federal government, the private sector, academia, and philanthropy, including serving a record tenure as Director of the former California Department of Health Services and California’s top health official, and as Under Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he engineered the internationally acclaimed transformation of the Veterans Healthcare System in the late 1990s.

Dr. Kizer is board certified in six medical specialties and/or subspecialties and is a fellow or distinguished fellow of 12 professional societies. He has authored more than 500 professional publications and is the recipient of numerous national awards. He is an honors graduate of Stanford University and the UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He chaired NAM’s recent expert committee that made multiple recommendations for reforming the U.S. organ transplantation system.