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Co-Founders, OneLegacy and National Institute of Transplantation
Los Angeles, CA


Kidney transplant surgeons Dr. Rafael G. Mendez and Dr. Robert Mendez have been pioneers in organ transplantation and procurement for more than four decades.

Dr. Rafael G. Mendez is Clinical Professor of Urology at the USC Keck School of Medicine; a member of the USC School of Medicine Salerni Collegium, and a Board Member of Healthcare Partners Medical Group. He is co-founder and chief financial officer of National Institute of Transplantation (NIT) and of OneLegacy. Mendez 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 is a recognized expert in the advances in organ transplantation and preservation.

Dr. Robert Mendez is a tenured Professor of Urology and Surgery at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and was Chairman of the Multi-Organ Transplant programs at USC University Hospital and St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles. He has served as President of United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) as well as President of Los Angeles Urological Society, the Southern California Transplant Society, and the Western Association of Transplant Surgeons. He is co-founder, President and Chairman of OneLegacy, the largest organ procurement agency in the U.S. and co-founder, President and Chairman of the National Institute of Transplantation (NIT), an internationally recognized non-profit transplant research organization. He was appointed by the President of the United States to sit on the National Institutes of Health Committee overseeing Xenotransplantation and has been a consultant for the Ministry of Health for Saudia Arabia and Dubai. He has addressed both the Italian Parliament and the Japanese Transplant Society to help formulate national transplant laws.