Board members
ISBT Executive Committee
Michael Busch
President (2022-2024)
Michael Busch earned his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Southern California followed by residency training in Pathology, Laboratory Medicine and Transfusion Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is currently Director of Vitalant Research Institute (VRI) and Senior Vice President for Research and Scientific Affairs at Vitalant, a national network of blood centers and donor testing laboratories. He is also a Professor of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF. Michael is one of the world’s leading transfusion medicine scientists, well-regarded for his ground-breaking work in such transfusion-transmitted diseases as HIV, HBV, HCV, HTLV and West Nile virus and protection of the nation’s blood supply from these and other emerging pathogens including ZIKV and SARS-CoV-2. He has published over 550 peer-reviewed scientific articles, editorials and book chapters. Michael is a member of the Transfusion Transmitted Diseases Committee of AABB, the Research and Development Advisory Committee of Canadian Blood Services and several World Health Organization panels.
Pierre Tiberghien
President Elect (2022-2024)
M.D., Ph.D., and clinical hematologist at the Besançon University Hospital until 2009, Pierre Tiberghien was previously director of the Bourgogne France-Comté Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS, the French transfusion public service) as well as of a University INSERM EFS research team on host-graft immune interactions. Professor of medicine, Immunology, at Franche-Comté University, Pierre Tiberghien was also EFS deputy CEO in charge of medicine and research from 2009 to 2017, and is presently senior advisor for European and international medical and scientific affairs at EFS, Paris. Pierre Tiberghien is President of the European Blood Alliance.
Lin Fung
Vice President (2020-2024)
Lin Fung is the Associate Professor in Medical Laboratory Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She has worked in tertiary hospital pathology laboratories, led research teams at the Australian Blood Service and University of Queensland, and was the Chair of the ISBT Granulocyte Immunobiology Working Party. She serves on two hospital blood management committees and has an active interest in translational transfusion research. This led her to set up the OptiBlood research team, which runs studies directed at optimising the patient’s blood and use of blood products. Lin enjoys public speaking, facilitating collaborations, mentoring young scientists and is an advocate for evidence based transfusion practice.
Jill Storry
Vice President (2022-2026)
Jill Storry is an adjunct Professor at the Division of Haematology & Transfusion Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University (LU), Sweden, and also responsible for the Immunohematology laboratories within the Department of Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Laboratory Medicine, Lund. She trained as Medical Laboratory Technologist in Bristol, England and has worked for the American Red Cross National Immunohematology Reference Laboratory and the New York Blood Center Immunohematology Reference Laboratory before moving to Sweden to pursue her post-doctoral career. Primary areas of interest are the study of human blood group systems, both from a clinical perspective in the provision of providing blood to alloimmunised patients and from the perspective of human polymorphism, and its role in health and disease. She is currently the Immunohematology Section Editor for Vox Sanguinis. She has served ISBT as a past chair and member of the Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology as well as a member of the Working Party on Rare Donors.
Erica Wood
Past President (2022-2024)
Erica Wood is an ISBT Board member and a member of ISBT working parties for clinical practice, haemovigilance, and transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases. From 2010-2014 she was ISBT regional director for the Western Pacific region. Erica is head of the Transfusion Research Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is a consultant haematologist at Monash Health and holds an honorary appointment at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Erica is president of the International Haemovigilance Network, past-president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion, and a member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel in Transfusion Medicine. Erica has served as Chief Examiner (Haematology) for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and chair of the Joint Specialist Advisory Committee in Haematology.
She is a member of the Victorian Blood Matters program advisory committee and the expert group of its Serious Transfusion Incident Reporting (STIR) haemovigilance program. In 2013, Erica was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to support her practice and research in patient blood management.
- Twitter:
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Gwen Clarke
Secretary General (2018-2026)
ISBT Secretary General, Chair of the Vox SC; Clinical Professor, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Gwen Clarke is a physician with training at the University of Alberta and at Emory University. She has clinical and research interests in perinatal immunohematology and experience as a hospital transfusion medicine physician and with the Canadian blood supplier. Her current role with Canadian Blood services includes medical leadership for perinatal and immunohematology reference laboratories, consultation in donor testing and for the Rare Blood Program. Gwen is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is a former program director for residency training in Hematopathology and an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Gwen has recently completed a term as president of the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine.
Eric Jansen
Treasurer (2016-2024)
Eric Jansen is currently working as an independent consultant in Blood Supply Chain Management. He is partner together with prof. dr. ir. Jan van der Wal in the company Blood Supply Chain Solutions. Eric retired in 2013 from his role as managing director of the Sanquin Blood Service Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Together with Steve Morgan he started and chaired the EBA Benchmarking project, aiming at performance improvement. Best practice are identified and via the EBA Flying Squad members in Europe (and US) were helped in the implementation of these best practices. Eric Jansen also worked in University and general hospitals in the Netherlands.
ISBT Regional Directors
Shirley Owusu Ofori
Regional Director Africa (2020-2024)
Shirley Owusu-Ofori is currently Head of Transfusion Medicine Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Acting Director of Central Zonal Blood Center in Kumasi, Ghana. Her research interests span across blood donor care, voluntary donor activity and blood safety in resource-constrained economies. She is a member of the ISBT Academy Advisory Committee and Science Series Editorial Board. Shirley has been runner up for ISBT Award for Developing Countries (Individual) on two consecutive occasions; 2012 and 2014. She serves as the Medical Advisor to the Ghana Haemophilia Society. She is a keen advocate and trainer in blood safety and safe transfusion practices with a special interest in improving survival outcomes in Maternal and Paediatric patients. She has led clinical trials evaluating intervention methods to prevent disease transmission including novel diagnostic approaches and photochemical blood treatment systems to inactivate pathogens and white blood cells in blood products.
Katerina Pavenski
Regional Director North Americas (2022-2026)
Dr. Katerina Pavenski is the Head of Division of Transfusion Medicine, clinical hematologist, medical director of the Therapeutic Apheresis Service and Co-director of the Patient Blood Management Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada. She obtained Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto and completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Adult Clinical Hematology (University of Toronto) and Transfusion Medicine (McMaster University). She is an associate professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto. Her research interests include clinical transfusion medicine, patient blood management and therapeutic apheresis. She is the Vice-Chair of the International Collaboration for Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) and a member of the ISBT Clinical Transfusion Working Party. She was awarded the Ortho Award by the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine in 2021 for her contributions to the field of transfusion medicine in Canada.
Jose Eduardo Levi
Regional Director Latin America (2022-2026)
José Eduardo Levi is a biologist. He obtained his Master and PhD degrees at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He has worked for more than 20 years in blood banks in São Paulo city with a major focus on blood screening. In parallel, José Levi has developed academic activities in the Virology Lab from the Tropical Medicine Institute from the University of São Paulo since 1995, doing research in blood-borne viruses but also Human Papillomaviruses and Arboviruses, having published 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles and supervised 20 thesis on these subjects. He has been a member of the ISBT Working Party in Transfusion-Transmitted Infections for many years, also coordinating the Virology subgroup for some time. Currently he is the head of Research and Development at Dasa, the largest clinical pathology lab in South America.
Maha Badawi
Regional Director Eastern Mediterranean (2022-2026)
Maha Badawi obtained her MBBS degree from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She then completed postgraduate training in internal medicine, hematology, and transfusion medicine at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC). Maha returned to Jeddah in 2014 and currently works as an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University.
She is the director of Blood Transfusion Services in King Abdulaziz University Hospital. Maha completed Masters in Health Professions Education in 2020, and is currently the program director for the adult hematology fellowship program in her training center. She is a member of the Hematology Research Unit in King Fahd Medical Research Center at King Abdulaziz University, and is a member of multiple committees in the Ministry of Health and the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties. She also joined ISBT Academy Standing Committee in 2018. Maha’s research interests include hemoglobinopathies, donor motivation, and blood utilization.
Christian Erikstrup
Regional Director Europe (2022-2026)
Christian Erikstrup is Chair Professor of Clinical Immunology at Aarhus University, Consultant and Head of Blood Production at the Department of Clinical Immunology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus Denmark.
Christian Erikstrup is a co-initiator of the The Danish Blood Donor Study - a nationwide open cohort study and biobank of blood donors. CE chairs the Danish Committee for Transfusion-Transmitted Infectious Diseases. CE is active in the SRAP subgroup of the TTID WP.
CE initiated his research career within HIV immunology with studies in Africa and Denmark and now focuses his research on susceptibility to infection and iron deficiency.
Cynthia So-Osman
Cynthia So-Osman finalized her specialism in Internal Medicine, with a subspecialty training in Haematology (2000) and in Transfusion Medicine (2002). She obtained a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Clinical Epidemiology (2008) and obtained her PhD with a thesis titled: “ Patient Blood Management in Elective Orthopaedic Surgery” in 2012. Since 2002 she is a Clinical Consultant in Transfusion Medicine at Sanquin Blood Bank at the Dept. of Transfusion Medicine, NL, and she actively participates in Patient Blood Management and COVID-19 related studies. As a part-time Haematology Consultant, she works at Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, NL. She chairs the ISBT Clinical Transfusion Working Party, she is a member of the International Collaborative on Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) and a member of the BEST Collaborative.Regional Director Europe (2020-2024)
Nelson Hirokazu Tsuno
Regional Director Western Pacific (2022-2026)
Nelson H Tsuno currently holds the positions of Deputy Director General of the Japanese Red Cross Kanto-Koshinetsu Block Blood Center, Senior Director of the Laboratory of the same blood center, Visiting Associate Professor at Keio University School of Medicine, and Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo. He has more than 20 years working experience in the transfusion medicine field, in both the university hospital and the blood service. He has chaired the ISBT Platelet Immunobiology WP with Dr Sentot Santoso and Prof. Ulrich J Sachs until 2021, and started activities of the WP in Asia by organizing training courses and workshops. He is also an active member of the ISBT Granulocyte Immunobiology WP and the Global Blood Safety WP. His research interests include platelets & granulocytes immunobiology, blood donors/donation, blood safety and donor testing. Presently, he is a section editor of the Vox Sanguinis.
Denese Marks
Denese Marks earned her PhD at the University of Technology, Sydney, followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Vienna, the University of Melbourne and the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, as well as working in the biotechnology industry. Denese is the National Leader for Product Development at Australian Red Cross LifeBlood, where her research focuses on developing new blood products to meet patient needs, improving blood component processing and storage, platelet and red cell cryopreservation, pathogen inactivation and clinical trials of blood products. She is also an adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Sydney School of Medicine. Denese is a Section Editor for Vox Sanguinis, a scientific member of the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative and a member of the Executive Committee for the ISBT Cellular Therapies Working Party.Regional Director Western Pacific (2020-2024)
Mahrukh Getshen
Mahrukh Getshen has graduated from Grant Medical College, India. She subsequently obtained a diploma in Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine from Mahidol University, Thailand and a Masters degree in Public Health from Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She heads the National Blood Bank at JDW, National Referral Hospital, Thimphu and also holds a lecturer’s post at KG University of Medical Sciences, Bhutan. In her capacity as the chairperson of National Blood Technical Advisory Committee, she is responsible to provide technical expertise and policy recommendations to the Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Bhutan. Mahrukh Getshen is a member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel for Blood Transfusion; ICCBBA Board of Directors and Vice-President of the Asian Association of Transfusion Medicine. She is the recipient of the National Order of Merit Award conferred by His Majesty, the King of Bhutan in 2017.Regional Director South East Asia (2020-2024)