Transplant Education and Events

Kidney Transplant Symposium 2026

November 10, 2026 | 8:00AM to 5:00PM with networking reception to follow

Marriott Philadelphia West
111 Crawford Ave
Conshohocken, PA 19428

Who Should Attend

Nurses, social workers, dietitians, dialysis center staff and other healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients before, during and after kidney transplantation. This course will cover beginner, intermediate, and advanced content levels.

Program Description

Kidney Transplant Symposium 2026: Navigating Through Transplant will address topics in the continuum of care for patients who require a kidney transplant. The emphasis will be on optimizing clinical management, patient education, and support before and after kidney transplantation. The symposium will include presentations by Temple Kidney Transplant Program members and personal accounts from living donors and recipients.

Social Workers and Nurses: Information regarding continuing education credits will be updated at a later date.

Registration

Registration for the 2026 symposium is now open! Please register here.

2026 Agenda with Speakers and Objectives

8:00-8:45am – Registration and Breakfast

9:00-9:15am – Welcome

9:15-9:45am – Introduction to Temple Transplant Team & Concepts of Transplant

Ryan Ihlenfeldt DNP, RN, CCRN

Review Transplant options: Type I dm and type II dm Simultaneous pancreas and kidney
Discuss Living kidney donation
Discuss Aggressive decease donor kidney transplant
Define transplant for patients with renal failure

Connect to Purpose

Alison Conklin, Giving Hope to Patients

9:45-10:15am – Optimizing Pre-Transplant Management

Sunil Karhadkar, MD, FACS

Objectives TBA

10:15-11:15am – Pathways to Transplant (Case study) / Panel

Desiree Guerrido, MSW

Describe and discuss strategies or interventions used to overcome psychosocial, clinical, and financial challenges to transplantation
Apply psychosocial screening tools to evaluate transplant readiness
Identify and address barriers to transplantation and provide appropriate psychosocial counseling

Shea Berrier, MSW, MBA

Identify common barriers that may affect kidney transplant eligibility for patients with elevated body mass index (BMI)
Describe interdisciplinary strategies that support transplant readiness and improve equitable access to kidney transplantation
Discuss opportunities for patient advocacy and care coordination that can help address barriers to kidney transplant candidacy

11:15-11:30am – BREAK

11:30am-12:30pm – Keynote: Overcoming Racial Disparities in Transplant

Naja Killebrew

Describe how economic hardship and community distress, rather than a failure of outreach, drive declines in donor designation in communities of color
Explain how consistent community presence builds the trust that shapes a family's donation decision, since no one can predict when a family will face that moment
Identify what community health survey data collected at events across Philadelphia reveals about attitudes toward donation and transplant in Black communities
Discuss how the community and clinical sides of transplant can align around the shared goal of reducing the waitlist

David Krissman, MFA

Discuss how narrative-driven media (patient stories, video, social content) can expand the pool of potential living donors beyond a patient's immediate social network
Identify how to harness the power of a patient's community to reach a broader audience
Describe how information about the positive outcomes of living kidney donors can motivate a patient and their communities

12:30-1:00pm – Obesity and Obstacles to Kidney Transplantation

Tatyan M. Clarke, MD, FACS, FASMBS, DABOM, ACHIP

Discuss obesity as a risk factor for renal failure and its prevalence in the pre-transplant population
Delineate the barriers to transplant seen in patients with obesity including access and outcomes
Review management strategies for obesity
Discuss program and payor-based restrictions that affect access to care

1:00-2:00pm –Lunch

2:00-3:00pm – Expert Panel Overcoming Barriers to Transplant

Facilitated by: Diana R. Kline

Describe the scope of practice and essential contributions of the panel members
Identify key barriers/propose strategies to overcome through collaborative team efforts
Recognize early indicators of transplant readiness
Evaluate case scenarios discussed by panelists
Summarize and interpret recent updates to transplant eligibility criteria and allocation policies

3:00-3:30pm – Substance Use and Mental Health in Transplant

Daniel Remer, PhD

Identify individual-level psychosocial risk factors and the structural conditions (e.g., housing instability, transportation access, employment constraints, etc.) that produce and sustain them.
Discuss how common psychosocial listing criteria function in practice, including variability across transplant centers, limited predictive validity for post-transplant outcomes, and disparate impact on patients by race, income, and geography.
Describe discipline-specific strategies to mitigate structural barriers during evaluation, including conditional listing pathways, documentation practices, contingency-based support planning, and program-level tracking of deferral and denial reasons.

3:30-4:00pm – Living Kidney Donation

John Mulligan, MSN, RN, M. Beth Lawrence BSN, RN, Qiara Aycox and Carly Capano

Review the foundation and impact of living kidney donation
Describe the benefits of living donor kidney transplant
Recognize the living donation team and the evaluation process
Discuss future advances in living donation matching
Demonstrate how you can assist patients with finding living donors

4:00-4:15pm – Break

4:15-4:45pm – Voices of Living Donation: Perspectives from a Living Donor and Recipient

Facilitated by Diana R. Kline

Describe the lived experience of both a transplant recipient and a living donor
Recognize opportunities to provide support throughout the transplant and donation process
Evaluate how personal narratives can inform ethical, culturally competent decision-making and education practices in clinical settings
Identify ways social workers can advocate for patients and families during the transplant referral, evaluation, and recovery phases

4:45-5:00pm – Questions, Closing Remarks

Diana R. Kline

5:00pm – Networking Reception with Dinner