Who we are

World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) is made up of organisations and individuals who promote global collaboration and best practices for the benefit of blood stem cell donors and transplant patients.

WMDA was informally initiated in 1988 by three pioneers in the field of transplantation: John Goldman (United Kingdom), E. Donnall Thomas (United States) and Jon J. van Rood (the Netherlands). This led to the foundation of WMDA in 1994.

In 2007, WMDA became one of the founding members of the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT). WBMT is a non-profit scientific organisation which aims to promote excellence in blood stem cell transplantation, donation and cellular therapy. It has an official relationship with the World Health Organization. The other three founding organisations of the WBMT are the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), and the Asian Pacific Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group (APBMT).

In 2017, WMDA took over the activities of Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW) and the NetCord Foundation. In 2020, EMDIS was integrated into WMDA.

WMDA is led by the WMDA Board supported by committees and working groups whose members are all experts in their fields. Day-to-day activities are carried out by our WMDA office, a team of professionals based in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Matthew Seftel, CA

Board member: President

Bronwen Shaw, US

Board member: Past President

Jaap Dijkman, NL

Board member: Treasurer

Matti Korhonen, FI

Board member: pillar 1 - Search, Match & Connect

Mike McCullough, US

Board member: pillar 1 - Search, Match & Connect

Dunia Jawdat, SA

Board member: pillar 2 - Global Development

Thilo Mengling, DE

Board member: pillar 3 - Donor Care

Garth Healey, AU

Board member: pillar 4 - Ensuring Quality

Lydia Foeken, NL

Executive director

Jitske Barneveld Binkhuysen, NL

Operations coordinator

Brigitte van der Vliet, NL

Finance Manager

Rhian Voskamp, NL

Fundraising & Communication Coordinator

Alicia Venter, NL

Project coordinator search, match & connect
Pillar coordinator Optimising Search, Match & Connect

Martine Schuit, NL

Project coordinator global development
Project coordinator of board pillar 'Supporting Global Development'

Eefke van Eerden, NL

Pillar coordinator donor care

Matilde Lartategui, NL

Project coordinator quality & accreditation
Project coordinator of board pillar 'Ensuring Quality'  and accreditation coordinator

Zhihong He, NL

Product owner data quality

Jesse Jongejan, NL

Full stack developer

Mark Melchers, NL

HLA Consultant & technical systems product owner

Dũng Nghiêm, NL

Full Stack Developer

Sunethra Trouw-Gunasekara, NL

Administrative Support Pillar 4

Monique Jöris, NL

Project coordinator

Mirjam Fechter, NL

Medical consultant S(P)EAR

Philippos Boon Alexaki, NL

Junior Developer

Leo Hendriks, NL

Junior Developer