Debra Budiani Saberi – Beyond the Midlands 3
DEBRA BUDIANI-SABERI
Direttrice / Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions
Debra Budiani-Saberi, Ph.D. is a Medical Anthropologist, the Executive Director and Founder of the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions, a Consultant to the United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and an expert on TPRO via a victim-centered approach. Her work has included an analysis of key stakeholders and actors involved in the organ trade including victims, recipients, medical professionals, religious clerics, laboratories, and the state. She has conducted extensive follow-up studies on health, economic, social and psychological consequences for victims of TPRO and established COFS prevention and outreach programs. She has provided consultation on organ trafficking to various agencies of the United Nations (OHCHR, the World Health Organization, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, the UN High Commissioner of Refugees), the Vatican and has worked in alliance with various medical and civil society organizations to combat the organ trade at local levels (Caritas, The International Transplantation Society, Declaration of Istanbul Custodial Group, and various related local NGOs). She has been an invited lecturer in numerous universities in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia, has published in medical and social science journals and appeared on numerous radio and television programs. She holds a Ph.D. in (Medical) Anthropology from Michigan State University, a M.S. in International Community Health and a M.A. in International Development from Ohio University, a B.A. in International Studies and a B.A. in Religion from Miami University (Ohio).