Sandra Wallace Blaydow
Department of Human Resources, County of Los Angeles
Gloria Bohrer
Educator
Gloria Garcia Bohrer is an educator by training and profession. In 2003, she retired from serving as the Director of Public Relations and Education for OneLegacy, where she was responsible for the implementation of public information and education programs in hospitals, schools and communities served by OneLegacy.
Ms. Bohrer developed the Discoveries school education program, which is designed to teach young people in grades 6 through 12 about the scientific aspects and importance of organ transplantation and donation. Ms. Bohrer was awarded a grant from the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation to further develop the Discoveries school program.
Ms. Bohrer continues to serve as a member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Communications Committee and sits on the board of the Coalition on Donation. Along with her involvement in and dedication to community outreach, she continues to make presentations to a variety of audiences regarding organ transplantation and donation.
Earle E. Crandall, MD, PhD, FACS, FICS
Neurosurgeon, Earle E. Crandall, Inc.
Dr. Crandall is a neurosurgeon whose training background includes the Mayo Clinic and Foundation. His research towards the Ph.D. degree led to various awards and recognition. After postdoctoral training in Paris, France, Dr. Crandall served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander and was attached for a time to the Third Marine Division. He received the Navy Commendation Medal and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for this service.
He has served as chief of neurosurgery at St. Vincent’s Medical Center and continues his teaching appointments at UCLA as clinical associate professor both in the departments of neurosurgery and neurobiology (neuroanatomy).
He continues the practice of neurosurgery as senior consultant and Independent Medical Examiner, and his special interests relate to neural and organ regeneration.
Dr. Crandall received the prestigious Officer of Academic Palms decoration from the French Government for outstanding achievement in science and is involved with many civic and cultural organizations.
William Gallio
Kidney Recipient
William Gallio was born in Oxnard, Calif. and moved with his family to Fullerton, Calif. in 1956. Mr. Gallio’s father started a rubbish business with the help of his sons, and in 1981, Mr. Gallio and his identical twin brother Bob took over the company and ran it until 1996 when they sold it to Republic Industries.
Mr. Gallio was actively involved in many rubbish-related organizations. He was president of the Detachable Container Corporation (Nationwide) from 1993-1995. He served on the Board of Directors for the National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA) for 6 years and for 10 years served on the Waste Haulers (National) Board of Directors. He was also president of the Waste Hauler Council for 2 years. In 1993, Mr. Gallio was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for NSWMA, and in 1995 was inducted into the NSWMA Hall of Fame.
Mr. Gallio has also been involved in local civic organizations. He served on the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for Energy Resource Management Committee for 15 years and was a Fullerton Rotary Club member from 1980-1996. He served on the Saint Jude Five as an Advisory Board Member of St. Jude Hospital for 10 years.
In 1985, he received a kidney transplant, and as a result became involved in transplantation issues, including joining OneLegacy’s Board of Directors.
Mr. Gallio has been married to his wife Karen for 30 years; they have two daughters and two grandchildren. His hobbies are cars, boats and motorcycles.
Rafael Mendez, MD, FACS (Secretary and Treasurer)
Medical Director, OneLegacy
Dr. Rafael G. Mendez, is Co-Medical Director of the Multi-Organ Transplantation Program at St. Vincent Medical Center, and is Professor of Urology and Director, Renal Transplant Program, USC School of Medicine; President of the Urological Consultants Medical Group; and a Board Member of Healthcare Partners Medical Group. He is a member of the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the USC School of Medicine Salerni Collegium, and Co-Founder of OneLegacy.
He has served as the chairman of St. Vincent Medical Center’s Department of Renal Transplantation; Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Urology Section; California Hospital Medical Center’s Division of Urology; the Central Area Teaching Hospital Association; and as a consultant to the Saudi-Arabian Health Ministry and the University of Autonomous School of Medicine in Guadalajara. He ahs traveled from Edinburgh to Singapore lecturing on the advances in transplantation and organ preservation.
Robert Mendez, MD, FACS (President and Chairman)
Medical Director, OneLegacy
Dr. Robert Mendez is Co-Medical Director of the Multi-Organ Transplantation Program at St. Vincent Medical Center, Director at Sharp Memorial Hospital and Professor of Surgery and Urology at USC School of Medicine. Together with his brother, Dr. Rafael Mendez, they co-founded the nonprofit National Institute of Transplantation (NIT) in 1984.
Over the years, Dr. Mendez has traveled widely, performing transplant procedures on needy patients abroad and providing help for the development of transplantation facilities in many countries in South America, the Middle East and North Africa. With the help of the Daughters of Charity and the physicians of the NIT, he has developed a program to enable underserved patients from other countries to receive transplant procedures at St. Vincent Medical Center.
Dr. Mendez is the co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has served as President of the Los Angeles Urological Society, the Southern California Transplant Society, Western Association of transplant Surgeons, the North American Dialysis and Transplant Surgeons, and as President and Co-Founder of OneLegacy. In 1991, he was President of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the organization responsible for all national transplant activity.
He addressed both the National Italian Parliament and the Japanese Transplant Society as an American representative to help them formulate national transplant laws. Among many other prestigious awards, Dr. Mendez was awarded the prestigious Malpighian Award by the Italian Transplant and Nephrological Society for his contributions to transplantation.
He was appointed to the National Institute of Health’s Advisory Committee on Xenotransplantation, which will advise the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on issues relating to xenotransplantation – the transplantation of living, non-human animal cells, tissues or organs into humans for therapeutic purposes.
Thomas Mone (ex-officio)
Chief Executive Officer, OneLegacy
Tom Mone is the Chief Executive Officer of OneLegacy, the largest organ recovery agency in the United States, serving 19 million people, 220 hospitals and 15 transplant centers. In this capacity, Tom has overseen a 40% increase in organ donors and lives saved through organs recovered for transplant; a 15% consent rate improvement; an 11% increase in organs per donor; the creation of the OneLegacy Tissue Services program; the world’s first web-based organ offer system; and the Donate Life Rose Parade Float.
Tom is President-Elect of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO), an AOPO Accreditation Surveyor, Chairs the AOPO UNOS committee, AOPO Representative to the American Medical Association, AOPO Representative to the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), and sits on the United Network on Organ Sharing (UNOS) Electronic Organ Placement group.
Mr. Mone has published “The Business of Organ Procurement” and has co-authored studies including “Prevalence of Antibodies to Trypanosoma cruzi among Solid Organ Donors in Southern California: A Population at Risk”, “NAT Testing for HCV Detection in Deceased Organ Donors”, “Increasing Donor Heart Utilization” and “Cadaveric Organ Donor Recruitment at Los Angeles County Hospital: Improvement After Formation of a Structured Clinical, Educational and Administrative Service”. “The Effectiveness of Pulsatile Perfusion of Deceased Donor Kidneys” – presented at the American Transplant Congress.
Previously, Mr. Mone was President and CEO of the San Gabriel Valley Medical Center, a Health Services Administrator for the Contra Costa County Health Services Department, and a Presidential Management Intern and a Budget Analyst for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.
Mr. Mone received his Master of Science degree from the University of California, Irvine and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
J. Thomas Rosenthal, M.D.
Professor, Urology
Chief Medical Officer, UCLA Medical Center
Associate Vice Chancellor, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Dr. Rosenthal is a urologist and was formerly the Director of the Kidney Transplant Program at UCLA. His accomplishments included substantial growth in the clinical program, achieving competitive NIH funding for clinical trials in transplantation to UCLA, and ultimately achieving research funding in excess of two million dollars. He received his M.D. from Duke in 1974 and completed his residency at the Lahey Clinic. He previously served as Program Director in Urology at UCLA, Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs and Executive Vice-Chair in the Department of Surgery at UCLA, and Director of the UCLA Medical Group before assuming his current roles. He is a past officer in a number of transplant societies.
Dr. Rosenthal received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.; attended medical school at Duke University, Durham, N.C.; interned at University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville, Va.; and performed residencies at University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville, Va., and Lahey Clinic Foundation, Boston, Mass.
Senator Art Torres
Chairman, California Democratic Party
Senator Art Torres (Ret.) is the President of the Walter Kaitz Foundation, a national non-profit organization established to create a diverse workforce within the cable/broadband industry.
He served twenty years in the California State Legislature. As a state senator, he led efforts in Hanoi to release Vietnamese prisoners from "education camps,” worked with Soviet Jewish refugee efforts in the former Soviet Union, and helped draft Pope John Paul II’s environmental message in 1989.
He created the most successful anti-high school dropout law in California’s history, initiated the first National Japanese Museum, and co-authored legislation that created the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. As Chairman of the Senate Toxics Committee, he co-authored the unprecedented and extremely successful California Clean Water Drinking Act.
In 1994, he entered the private sector as President of Cordoba International, an engineering consulting firm in Los Angeles.
While in Los Angeles, he served as the first chairman of the non-profit corporation overseeing the establishment of the first citywide public access television station using the governmental access channel of the local cable television provider.
In 1996, he was elected Chairman of the California Democratic Party and is credited with reinstating financial and political stability to the nation’s largest state party.
As current president of Torres Consulting, he provides advice and counsel to many Fortune 500 corporations. He is the Governor’s appointee to the Managed Care Commission, which seeks to improve the health care delivery system in California.
Senator Torres serves as member of the Council of Foreign Relations of New York, the Harvard University Alumni Association; and, the boards of the Princeton Review Board, California Planning and Conservation League, Heal the Bay (overseeing the future of Santa Monica Bay and environs), the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee.
He is the co-author of "BABALU”, a Latino celebrity cookbook with proceeds dedicated to the National Association of Breast Cancer Organizations.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California at Davis. He also held an appointment as a John F. Kennedy teaching fellow at Harvard University.
Richard Towse
Donor Father
Mr. Towse became involved with the organ donation program after his son David died in an auto accident. He was deeply moved by a letter of appreciation that his daughter-in-law received from the OneLegacy coordinator in Bakersfield. He appeared on a local show called "You Be the Doctor" to discuss organ donation, then on a television program with Drs. Robert and Rafael Mendez. After meeting the Drs. Mendez, he was invited to serve on the OneLegacy Board to represent donor families. He believes his time on the Board has helped him and his family voice a unique point of view and deal with the never-ending grief of losing a loved one.
He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Society of Kern County and the Kern County Autism Center, Inc.
Mr. Towse is a retired Principal of the Blair Learning Center for Children with Multiple Handicaps. Previously, he was an elementary and junior high school teacher.
He has done post-graduate work at the State University of New York at Oneonta, the University of Southern California, Murray State University and California State University in Bakersfield. He received his Masters Degree from Fresno State University and his Bachelors Degree from Springfield College.