Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to announce that Michelle McDonald is joining the Division of Surgical Transplantation, where she will serve as the surgical director for living donor kidney transplantation at Clements University Hospital.

Dr. McDonald earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas and her medical degree from the University of Texas School of Medicine in San Antonio, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. She completed a residency in urology at the University of California, San Diego, followed by a two-year kidney transplant fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles – one of the largest kidney transplant programs in the U.S.

As both a transplant surgeon and urologist, Dr. McDonald has extensive expertise in kidney transplantation, laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and urologic issues arising in pre- and post-renal transplant patients. Dr. McDonald is a member of the American Urological Association and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. She joins us after having served as the director of the Living Donor Renal Transplant Program for St. David’s North Austin Medical Center in Austin, Texas, where she started the city’s first national program for swapping living kidney donations.

In her spare time, Dr. McDonald enjoys an active and vegan lifestyle while advocating for the humane treatment of animals. She joins us in Dallas with her significant other Peter and their two dogs and two cats. Please join the Division of Surgical Transplantation in welcoming them to Dallas!

Sincerely,

Parsia Vagefi, M.D.

Chief, Division of Surgical Transplantation

Associate Professor in Surgery

Ernest Poulos, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Surgery