COFS TEAM

Board of Directors
Debra Budiani, Ph.D.
Executive Director and Founder of COFS and Visiting Research Associate, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Budiani is a Medical Anthropologist and has conducted extensive research related to organ transplants and the trafficking of human organs beginning in 1999 as a part of her study on refugee health. Her work has included an analysis of key stakeholders and actors involved in recruited living donorship including donors, recipients, medical professionals, religious clerics, laboratories, and the state. She has conducted extensive follow-up studies and outreach on commercial living organ donors assessing health, economic, social and psychological consequences. She has also worked more broadly on health, commodification of the body, and bodily integrity in various parts of the Middle East and Northeast Africa (Egypt, Eritrea, Morocco, Qatar, Somalia, United Arab Emirates) as well as in India.

Debora Golden, J.D.- Secretary
DC Prisoners’ Legal Services

Megan Plyler, Ph.D.- Treasurer

Renée C. Fox Ph.D.
Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Fellow Emerita of the Center for Bioethics

A summa cum laude graduate of Smith College , she holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University , where she studied in the Department of Social Relations. Her major teaching and research interests – sociology of medicine, medical research, medical education, and medical ethics – have involved her in first-hand participant observation-based studies in Continental Europe (particularly Belgium), in Central Africa (especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire), and in the People’s Republic of China, as well as in the United States. Her best-known books are Experiment Perilous: Physicians and Patients Facing the Unknown; In the Belgian Château: The Spirit and Culture of a European Society in an Age of Change; The Courage to Fail: A Social View of Organ Transplantation and Dialysis; and Spare Parts: Organ Replacement in American Society (the last two of which were coauthored with medical historian Judith P.Swazey). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the Institute of Medicine , and the recipient of nine honorary degrees. In 1995, the Belgian Government named her Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II. Read More.

International Advisory Council
Arthur Caplan, Ph.D. Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Gabriel Danovitch, M.D. Director, Kidney and Kidney-Pancreas Transplantation, Renal Transplant Service, UCLA Medical Center

Samer El-Kamary, M.D. University of Maryland - Regional Program Specialist

Hossam Fadel, M.D. Representative from the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA)

Azza M. Karam, Ph.D. Senior Policy Research Advisor, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

Jok Madut Jok, Ph.D. Professor of (Medical) Anthropology, Loyola Marymount

Rauf Mir, M.D. Representative from the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA)

Abderrahim Sabir, Executive Director, Partners in Human Rights (Headquarters: Casablanca, Morocco)

Othman Shibly, DDS, M.S. International Education and Programs Associate Director, Center for Clinical Dental Studies University at Buffalo; Scholar of Islamic Law Damascus University

Supporting Staff/ Partners

Mohamed AbdAlFatah, M.D., Urology - Donor Advocate and Care Provider

Fatma Assef, Instructor, Middlebury College and Ph.D. Candidate (Alexandria University) -Regional Coordinator

Ahmed Badawi, Attorney of Law, Egyptian Association for Defending Victims of Medical Malpractice, Cairo, Egypt - Program Partner

Ganesh Gurung, Executive Chairperson of the Nepal Institute of Development Studies (NIDS); Chairperson of CARAM - Asia (CARAM= Coordination fo Action Research on Aids and mobility) - Program Partner

Raghuram Kuppuswamy, Director of the Multiple Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation, Hyderabad, India- Program Partner.

Amr Masoud, M.D. Chief of Urology Department, Beni Suef University, Egypt- Donor Follow-Up Caregiver and Advisor

Ayman Rabeh, Attorney of Law, Director of the Egyptian Association for Defending Victims of Medical Malpractice, Cairo, Egypt - Program Partner

Nabeel Rajab, Vice President, Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Manama, Bahrain - Program Partner

Hani Serag, M.D., Global Secretariat, People’s Health Movement (PHM), and Vice Director of the Association for Health and Environmental Development (AHED) -Strategic Advisor, Cairo, Egypt

Staff

Kabir Karim- Program Manager, Egypt

Amr Mostafa Hassan - Field Researcher and Donor Advocate, Egypt

“Karim,” Organ Donor/Seller – Peer Advocate and Outreach Program Advisor

Interns

Eric Feldman- Law Student, Georgetown University School of Law

Jennifer Nadege Toussaint- Law Student, Georgetown University School of Law

Volunteers

Basim Ayoub, M.D. Cairo University and Cleveland Clinic Health System Fairview Hospital- Regional Program Specialist

Nasser Burdestani- Research Assistant, Manama, Bahrain

Iqbal H. Jaffar, School of Medicine, Kings College, St. Lucia, Australia

Imran Punekar- Field Researcher and Fulbright Scholar, United Arab Emirates