Our History

On September 25, 1991, minority transplant and procurement professionals met in St. Louis, Missouri. The goal of the meeting was to share ideas about increasing organ and tissue donation within minority communities. It was decided that there was a great need to unite multicultural professionals across the country in order to network and share best practices for mobilizing multicultural communities through a shared message. After much discussion, everyone agreed to gather in person to discuss formally organizing in order to accomplish this mission.

A meeting was held February 25-26 in Houston, Texas. There were over 80 multicultural transplant and donation professionals in attendance from across the U.S. A decision was made to formally launch the American Society of Minority Health and Transplant Professionals (ASMHTP).

The first annual ASMHTP meeting was held in conjunction with the Samuel L. Kuntz Symposium sponsored by the Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP). On June 24, 1993, the American Society of Minority Health and Transplant Professionals became incorporated under the Commonwealth of Virginia.

ASMHTP initiated working relationships with the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO), American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), North American Transplant Coordinators Organization (NATCO), and other transplant and procurement organizations.

ASMHTP members were appointed to UNOS national committees.

ASHMTP took an active part in developing a position paper on payment incentives for donation to present to Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)

ASHMTP releases its first video.

ASHMTP became more proactive in its mission to increase the awareness of organ donation and transplantation in multicultural communities.

ASHMTP headquarters move to Mississippi.

I ASHMTP obtained a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HRSA) to host a “Recruitment and Retention of Minorities” seminar at the January AOPO meeting.

The 10th annual ASHMTP conference was held in Birmingham, Alabama; nearly 100 participants attended.

ASHMTP launches new website

ASHMTP awards Clive O. Callendar, M.D., founder of MOTTEP (Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program), with a lifetime achievement award.

ASHMTP members challenge UNOS to provide consent for all Asian groups based on the ethnic designations used in the U.S. Census. UNOS agrees and OPO’s throughout the U.S. begin collecting information based upon these broader categories.

ASHMTP produces a brochure about living donation and multicultural communities.

ASHMTP is awarded a 3-plus-one travel grant from UNOS (United Network of Organ Sharing) to allow non-AMAT members to accompany AMAT members to the annual conference held in Bioxi, Mississippi.

ASHMTP produces a traveling display board that is featured at all major industry conferences (AOPO, DLA, NATCO).

ASHMTP moves to UNOS headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.

ASHMTP is invited to participate on AOPO’s Multicultural Taskforce, DMAC.

AOPO-funded travel grant is awarded to ASHMTP; the grant allows members of OPO’s to travel to other OPO’s to glean best practices about working with multicultural communities.

ASHMTP collaborates with HRSA to produce African American, Hispanic and Asian calendars promoting healthy living and healthy recipes.

ASHMTP recipients of AOPO travel grant visit host OPO’s throughout the country.

ASMHTP partners with HRSA to provide pre-conference workshops focused on writing and submitting successful HRSA grant applications.

ASMHTP focuses on revitalizing the organization by undergoing a year-long evaluation and rebranding process with the support of Bryan Stewart, OneLegacy.

ASHMTP creates new committees to address donation and transplantation within specific ethnic communities; launches the African American, Latino and API workgroups.

ASHMTP becomes AMAT (Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation); the organization’s mission, logo and vision are all updated. With these changes, the organization also launches a new strategic branding/planning initiative.

AMAT partners with Gift of Life Institute and MBD Communications to provide pre-conference workshops.

AMAT hosts its 19th annual conference in Tampa, Florida. The conference received record-breaking ratings for participant satisfaction.

HRSA/AMAT host a joint Webinar entitled, “DTCP 101 – Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice 101.”

AMAT’s African American working group unveils a 3-part webinar series themed, “Church 101: History, Hope, Health,” which explores faith-based initiatives that support donation with the African American community.

AMAT issues a press release highlighting key contribution and donation trends from each ethnic working group (African American, API, Latino) in support of National Minority Donor Awareness Day.

AMAT goes social and launches LinkedIn group to serve as an additional online resource for networking and idea-sharing

AMAT is proud to support the lengthening of National Minority Donor Awareness Day to a week-long celebration.

AMAT launches a new moniker for its quarterly newsletter, AMAT Spectrum, to reflect the diversity of the association and its effort to unite as a powerful force to move the needle on multicultural best practices within the organ/tissue donation and transplantation industry.

AMAT refreshes its Facebook page and sets new goals for member engagement

AMAT launches dedicated webpages for each of its diversity workgroups.