2024 Award Winners

Gloria Chen – winner of the Judy Midelfort Award.  This phenomenal social worker gives her entire heart and given her short employment in the Transplant World she has surpassed many colleagues in her desire to make a change in the Social Work Transplant stage for not only our patients but for the Transplant Community.  Gloria Chen is a stunning example of how one can excel at both a clinical career and a research career simultaneously. She is described by a peer as “one of the pioneers for this generation of social workers. She is dedicated to the advancement of social work, as evidenced by her passion for research. She  understands the importance of social work but also the nature of science with its desire for data. She joined the two together while encouraging others to get involved as well.”

Currently working at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas at Austin, she has been a licensed social worker in Texas since 2010 and has had her certification as a Clinical Transplant Social Worker with STSW since 2016.  She has been a long-time supporter of social work research alongside her clinical career.  She has presented at conferences on a variety of topics.  She also has authored several publications in peer reviewed transplant journals between 2019-2022.

She extends her patient advocacy and representation of social work by serving on multidisciplinary committees. She serves as the Region-4 Representative for the OPTN Ethics Committee, and has previously served as a Member-at-Large with the Psychosocial & Ethics Community of Practice for the American Society for Transplantation, 2020-2022.

When considering her clinical work, research and professional committee contributions, it is clear that she seeks to improve the psychosocial care of the transplant recipient, and to elevate the contributions of transplant social workers in research. She is as humble as she is motivated. Her perseverant enthusiasm is infectious.

 

Samicca Berry, winner of this year’s Lee Suszycki Award, is a credentialed CCTSW, currently the only one in the state of South Carolina. Her interest in Transplant started prior to her position as Transplant Social Worker when she was hired during the newly developed Medical University of SC- Mid Carolina program in 2021.

Prior to this role, she worked with DaVita Dialysis for 10 years. She became interested in Transplant after a mishap at her dialysis center (a faulty system in place for HLA labs) led to a patient missing his opportunity for kidney transplant. She took the initiative to create a program to prevent those errors which led to zero issues in the years following her involvement. During this time, she became more involved with referral and helping patients with their journey to transplant, leading to more patients being active on the list.

While completing evaluations and post care with over 600 patients she has collaborated with community and team members to develop the psychosocial aspect of care to include lodging, meals, and education with dialysis social workers. She is the sole social worker for the center currently managing evaluations, inpatient care and post care.

She has outstanding motivation to develop programs. She and one of her colleagues developed a nonprofit, South Carolina Transplant Foundation, a 503 (c) of which she is acting CFO and board member in 2024. She applied and was approved for a grant to help with meals for Transplant patients from the MUSC Grant program.

2023 Award Winners

Beth Piotrowicz - Suszycki Award 

Beth has served for many years as a member of our conference planning committee. She was our first national program chair, and she developed this position. She worked for a number of years by herself in this complicated process — call for abstracts, review of abstracts, CEU submission to NASW, complying required information — planning the program and problem solving many issues that arise when one is working with multiple presenters. Beth effected many improvements, resulting in a more efficient process. She is ending years of working in this position, a position which has required non-stop work twelve months of the year. Beth is a credentialed transplant social worker at Cleveland Clinic. After working with adults, she made a career change in 2020 –moving to children’s programs, and also changing the organ group she works with. She has been a conference presenter and has been an active participant of the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Initiative of pediatric to adult age transition, “On My Way”. She displays energy, a positive attitude, a great sense of humor, an openness to work with colleagues, and a commitment that serves her patients and the Society with skill and heart.

Kathy Daley  - Suszycki Award 

Kathy is a credentialed social worker at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She has been a member of our conference planning committee as well as a co-chair of the program committee since 2015. In this role she, along with the conference planning groups, meets 12 months of the year. There are many steps to planning the program and Kathy’s work is integral in shaping these pieces into a well-rounded conference program. During the time Kathy has served on this board position many changes have occurred. She has helped streamline the process, which has led to a more thorough review of the abstracts and improved the quality of presentations at our conference. While Kathy was involved in this work, she also made a major career change – continuing in transplant but changing from adult to a pediatric program and changing organ groups – a challenge that she wanted to take for her professional and personal growth. Kathy has presented at a number of our conferences and her presentations have been thought-provoking and well received. Kathy is always willing to step in and help and brings a sense of humor and fun to everything she does. 

Emily Walz - Midelfort Award

Emily serves as a transplant social worker at UPMC in Pittsburgh, as well as the Outreach Coordinator for the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC).  Emily’s passion for living donation and advocacy led her to spearhead an “NLDAC Process” that resulted in every potential living donor candidate being screened for NLDAC assistance, and for those who are eligible, helping those donors apply as part of their living donor work-up. Since implementing this process applications have doubled, and in 2022, $285,937 in assistance was provided to living donors. The system has also proved to be sustainable and replicable. So far in 2023, over 101 applications have been submitted! Emily now trains other transplant centers on the UPMC NLDAC Process, which will result in other centers offering this assistance in a more organized way to all their eligible donors. Emily exemplifies excellence in transplant care, both to her patients and her transplant center. In 2020, Emily saw the need for a dedicated position to care for the living donors at UPMC, and began advocating for a dedicated living donor social work position. She researched, advocated, and developed a plan that was implemented. The position was approved and continues today. Emily continues this important work by actively serving on the STSW Living Donor committee. She treats every person with the utmost kindness, compassion and respect. 

2022 Award Winners

Kristin Malaer - Suszycki Award

Kristin has been a transplant social worker for 7+ years.  She has worked in Heart and Lung Transplant and MCS.  Her forte is MCS social work for which she has become a national leader.  Kristin is described as a strong clinician who is skilled in all aspects of social work and a strong advocate for her patients and their families. Kristin is the lead social worker for the transplant education program at the Memorial Hermann TMC Heart and Lung Transplant Center. Kristin has been instrumental in organizing and facilitating both live as well as on-line transplant classes.  She has worked diligently with the Memorial Hermann Marketing and Education Teams to update and re-film the current classes.

Kristin joined the STSW Board Member as the MCS Chair in 2019. She has brought energy to the MCS Committee that has resulted in an increase in participation and a vitality. Kristin has presented at our conference multiple times and spearheaded the efforts for members to obtain transplant-specific contact hours when participating in MCS Committee meetings

Additionally, Kristin is a strong supporter of professional growth and education for our MCS social work colleagues through her leadership as the MCS Committee Chair.  Kristin is a passionate social worker who has been a leader in our Heart Transplant and MCS Program, and in the national/International arena through her work with STSW, Abbott, and ICCAC.  Kristin is a respected member of the Heart Transplant and MCS Team.  Her expertise and advice is sought by not only our Team but also by MCS social workers across the country. Kristin is representative of all that is excellent in the field of transplant and MCS social work.  Her work locally and nationally has advanced the role of the MCS social worker and STSW.

Chrissi White - Midelfort Award

The conference was to be held in Orlando in the fall of 2020, but because of the pandemic, the conference was held in a virtual format. Chrissi continued to work with the conference in 2020, 2021, when once again we were virtual and again this year as we plan a "Live" conference. Chrissi could have decided to not continue to work with conference planning--she did not. In the 37 years of the conference only Chrissi and her colleague, Jessica Perry have been involved with planning for more than one year. Chrissi joined monthly conference planning calls. She volunteered to take on additional responsibilities. If contacted with a question or a request to complete a conference-planning task, we would hear from her promptly--typically the same day. Her responses were thorough, detailed and reflected extra effort she made to be well informed. During the pandemic, Chrissi's transplant responsibilities were increased because of high patient needs and she also became a first time mom. These extra responsibilities did not interfere with her commitment to conference planning. We were especially impressed with her eagerness to learn new AV skills during our virtual conferences and was a great asset to our team and those presenting. Chrissi continues to be an active STSW member and she is now a STSW board member, adding this responsibility in the last year. Chrissi displays commitment to STSW goals and an eagerness to learn and professionally grow as she takes on new responsibilities. 

2021 Award Winners

Katie Newton, MSW LICSW CCTSW - Suszycki Award

Katie Newton is a kidney and living donor social worker (adult population) at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield MA. She has been a member of STSW since 2018. She has been helping on the conference planning committee since 2019 and has served as our Membership Chair since 2020.

Katie has been instrumental in building and implementing STSW’s new website on Wild Apricot, which has greatly streamlined the work that the Board does behind the scenes, and made Forum communication, Conference registration, payments, and general user ability much more friendly and accessible. Her knowledge, positive "can do" attitude, enthusiasm, patience, helpfulness, and kindness made working with her throughout this process easy and a joy. When we faced a “conference crisis” during Covid in 2020, she took the lead in identifying an AV company and managing many of the tasks involved in developing a conference webpage. Her ability to collaborate and problem-solve was evident and appreciated by the entire committee.

At home in Massachusetts, she created a process with a local mental health/substance abuse provider to help patients meet the substance abuse goals established for them to meet transplant listing requirements. This process has increased the numbers of patients getting listed and transplanted. Katie presented a poster on this topic at the 2021 STSW Virtual Conference.  An STSW colleague says of Katie, “Katie appears to approach her work with the same energy, professionalism and innovative spirit as she does her work with STSW.” STSW has proudly awarded her this award.

Rebecca Bathon, MSW LCSW CCTSW- Midelfort Award

Rebecca joined STSW two years ago and has been the lung transplant social worker at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis Missouri for more than 20 years. In this time she has modeled how to develop credibility within their interdisciplinary teams, has been dedicated to advocating for transplant-specific social work education/training within their department, and has continued to show her team and colleagues what it means to go above and beyond to take care of patients in compassionate and innovative ways.

Rebecca is passionate about education, and she demonstrates that by acting as a field instructor for MSW students, providing supervision for colleagues pursing their LCSW and mentoring for THE ALLIANCE for many years. Since joining STSW she has worked with the 2020 conference committee, been a member of the STSW Lung Committee, and presented at the September Lung Committee meeting. She is a wonderfully collaborative team member at her hospital. To this point, a colleague notes that she impacts her colleagues in deep and meaningful ways, assisting them with national presentations and projects, and always willing to consult on difficult cases, offering gentle guidance while also pushing them to think outside of the box. STSW is so pleased to be able to honor Rebecca with this award.

2020 Award Winners

Kristen DeVoe, MSW LICSW CCTSW CCSW-MCS - Suszycki Award At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Kristen began her transplant social work career working in heart transplant / VAD/MCS. In short order, she earned the respect of a difficult team and became known among all the transplant teams for her excellence, leadership and reliability. Always willing to help, she volunteered on different committees, and notably even became an EPIC trainer because of her skill set in organization and technology. After moving to her position at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston as a living donor social worker, Kristen also worked part-time as a home-based educator in their Transplant “House Calls” research project. She has been on the planning committee for several New England-based Transplant Social Work conferences in the past 3 years. Kristen has been a member of the STSW for the past 8+ years. She was an active committee member on the 2014 STSW Boston conference and was a long-standing member of the STSW Credentialing Committee. In 2019, Kristen was voted in as the STSW Treasurer. Kristen has demonstrated her leadership skills on both the Credentialing and Membership committees and was unanimously approved by the Executive Committee when she expressed her interest in taking on more duties and leadership opportunities as the Society Treasurer. Kristen balances her duties as a transplant social worker and her many duties as Treasurer. She demonstrates her commitment to transplant social work as a member of the Executive Committee by being reliable, responsive, responsible, and a great problem-solver. Kristen is a team player and is a strong advocate for her patient population as well as a leader of our Society.  Tobias Kleinhans-LeRoux, CCTSW - Midelfort Award The Netcare Group is the only private hospital group in South Africa that performs transplantations.  Two of those centers are based in the Western Cape Province where Tobias works.  He brings 23 years of professional skills and practice into the specialized field of transplant social work which he passionately fulfills. His psychosocial assessments are invaluable to the transplant teams he interacts with. He plays a pivotal role with the transplant teams of Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital and Netcare UCT Private Academic Hospital as the only transplant social worker and the only one from Africa being accredited as a Clinical Transplant Social Worker. He has brought innovation and creativeness to past National Transplant Congresses and as a Transplant Support Group Coordinator / Facilitator since 2009. This support group is inclusive of the renal and heart transplant population and attracts between 30-40 people per group session. Tobias’s professional manner and compassionate people-skills well-suit his role as a Transplant Social Worker. He shows leadership and mindfulness in his interactions with others. He is registered as a Specialist Counselor and also has his own private practice, “ProHealth Private Social Work Services”, mainly specializing in medical / hospital social work. Tobie’s passion for Transplant Social Work inspired him to join STSW in 2009, and he earned his CCTSW in 2011. He is one of STSW’s most consistent and dedicated international members. In STSW, he has held the position of Bylaws Chair and Compliance Officer (2012-2015) and has attended multiple STSW Conferences, traveling from Africa to the USA, in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 with presentations in 2010, 2011 and 2014.

2019 Award Winners 

Colleen Satarino LMSW, CCTSW - Suszycki Award

Colleen Satarino was awarded the Lee Suszycki Award at the 2019 STSW Conference in Denver, CO. Colleen has been a transplant social worker for over a decade and a CCTSW since 2013. She is a strong clinician and leader with an interest in research and program development. She has presented on transplant-related issues to several organizations, including at STSW and the National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Conference. A kidney/pancreas transplant social worker, she has done dialysis outreach, providing transplant education to clinic staff and strengthening relationships with dialysis social workers. She has done outstanding work over the past two years as co-chair of our research committee, reviewing research proposals and vetting surveys to be sure they are meaningful and worthy of our time. She has bee has been part of the Michigan Medicine Transplant Team for 14 years. Colleen, thanks for your service and your strong commitment to advancing our field in the world of research. We are excited to see what you will continue to bring in the future.

Nancy Edgington LCSW, CCTSW - Midelfort Award

Nancy Edgington was awarded the Judy Midelfort Award at the 2019 STSW Conference in Denver. Nancy has been a member of the STSW since 2004. She was in the first class of CCTSWs, and continues to hold that credential. She has helped organize a national conference, which anyone on the Denver committee can tell you is a ton of work!  She joined the Board in her current capacity in 2016. She always has a smile on her face and an open attitude when tackling the task of keeping our largest group updated on what is important in the field of transplantation. She is our Kidney/Pancreas Board Member at Large and works at Yale New Haven Hospital. The winner of the 2019 Judy Midelfort award is Nancy Edgington. Nancy, we appreciate the work you have done over the past three years and look forward to your guidance and support in the coming years.

2018 Award Winners

Tony Lee  - Suszycki Award

The 2018 Lee Suszycki Award went to Tony Lee. Tony is a transplant social worker for Tufts Medical Center and has worked with patients with VAD, heart, kidney, and pediatric kidney transplants. Tony has been a leader in the field since he was hired to be transplant social worker. He was on the conference committee for the 2014 STSW conference in Boston.  Tony stepped in to lead the Membership Committee for STSW as soon as he was nominated.  With his exceptional organizational skills, he has developed processes to connect to each member individually and coordinated the transition of new members to mentorship.  Membership has grown by more than 25% in his two years of leadership.  Tony has shared his creativity, developed communication and coordinated a liaison role between tech and membership to help quickly resolve activation issues.  The Society of Transplant Social Workers’ foundation has been strengthened through Tony’s powerful work. 

Jenifer Espinoza, LMSW MPA - Midelfort Award

Jenifer Espinoza, LMSW, MPA was awarded the Judy Midelfort Award at the 2018 conference in Oklahoma City.  Jenifer received her master’s degree 6 years ago.  She has worked at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital for the last 4 ½ years and she is also a supervisor in her department.  Jenifer was the site chair for the 2017 STSW conference that was held in Scottsdale.  It was an excellent conference and Jenifer displayed strong leadership skills as she led the planning activities.  Later that year, Jenifer became the Treasurer for STSW, a very time-consuming executive board position and one with great responsibilities.  Jenifer has made some helpful changes since she began her role in this position.  She collaborates with other team board members and she also offered guidance to the 2018 conference planning committee.  Jenifer has helped with the development and workings of the STSW website and she has provided assistance to our technology team.  She displays a commitment to STSW, and she has been willing to take on tasks for the betterment of our Society.   Congratulations, Jenifer!

2017 Award Winners

Gracie Moore Greene, Suszycki Award

Gracie Moore Greene, DrPH, LCSW-C, CCTSW is a retired Clinical Team Leader for Transplant Social Work. She currently provides part time clinical intervention for Independent Dialysis Foundation and is a Transplant/Medical Facility Surveyor for Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC. Gracie has been a social work clinician and health care manager for more than 40 years. She has developed and implemented clinical social work programs to improve service quality in community and hospital settings with a focus on psychosocial and environmental factors that impact health. Gracie also developed, implemented and published an evidence-based practice initiative to standardize the psychosocial evaluation process for kidney, heart / VAD, lung, and liver transplant recipients. She is currently engaged in a multicenter pilot research study partially sponsored by the STSW that examines the use of Symptom Targeted Intervention to Improve Psychosocial Outcomes of Solid Organ Transplant Patients.

Pat Dennis, Midelfort Award

Pat Dennis is an LCSW, CCTSW and CCSW-MCS.  She has been a social worker since 2001 and prior to that was a college and university Controller.  She has worked in transplant since 2013 and has been a STSW member since 2014.  She played a role in the creation of the social work portion of the new Cardiac Transplant & VAD program at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FL.

Lee Syszycki Award Winners

Judy Midelfort	1992
Ann Woodbury	1993
Sharon Thompson	1994
Linda Hutkin Slade	1995
Kate Vos & Barbara Levine	1996
Cina Robertson	1997
Kay Kendall	1998
Jane Harrison	1999
Ilene Gelman	2000
Margot Stouse	2001
Sharon Levin	2002
Toronto & Arizona Planning Committees	2003
Jennifer Manolis	2004
Anne Lawler	2005
Deb Mayor	2006
Geri Etringer	2007
Sandy McMath	2008
Phyllis McFarland	2009
Carol Winetroub	2010
Julia LaMantia	2011
Mary Beth Callahan	2012
Janet Stevenson	2013
Annette Humberson	2014
Beth Mosele	2015
Mary Fisher	2016
Gracie Moore-Greene	2017
Tony Lee	2018
Colleen Satarino	2019
Kristen DeVoe	2020
Katie Newton	2021
Kristin Malaer	2022
Kathy Daley Beth Piotrowicz	2023
Gloria Chen	2024

Judy Midelfort Award Winners

	1992
	1993
	1994
Will Crowder	1995
Wayne Paris	1996
Jane Bright	1997
Sandy McMath	1998
Mike Cervante	1999
Deb Gordon / Rachel Diness	2000
Sandy Notheger	2001
Linda Wright	2002
Toronto & Arizone Planning Committees	2003
Mary Freeman	2004
Tim Williams	2005
Laurie McDonald	2006
Charles Thomas	2007
Nina Schroder	2008
Barrett Gray	2009
Jan Hart	2010
Laurie Shore	2011
Nancy Arnold	2012
Noelle Dimitri	2013
Dawn Temple	2014
Pat Voorhes	2015
Molly Dugan	2016
Patricia Dennis	2017
Jenifer Espinoza	2018
Nancy Edgington	2019
Tobias Kleinhans-LeRoux	2020
Rebecca Bathon	2021
Chrissi White	2022
Emily Walz	2023
Samicca Berry	2024