Betsy Verna

Dr. Verna is a transplant hepatologist, clinical researcher and educator at Columbia University. She is the Director of Clinical Research for Columbia’s Transplant Clinical Research Center, a center that is responsible for the development and execution of clinical trials and clinical research across all solid organ transplantation at Columbia. Dr. Verna has made substantial research contributions in transplantation, including understanding the natural history and treatment of viral hepatitis in solid organ transplant candidates and recipients. This work led to her being selected to develop the current HCV treatment guidelines.  In addition, her NIH-funded work aims to understand the impact of the composition and function of the intestinal microbiome on clinical outcomes in liver transplant candidates and recipients. Throughout her career she has co-authored over 60 original publications, serves as the site investigator in multiple NIH-sponsored studies, and has held positions of leadership in committees within our sister societies including the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and The American Gastroenterological Association.  She also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Liver Transplantation. At Columbia, she has been the Program Director for the ACGME-approved Transplant Hepatology Fellowship for the last four years. 

As a member of the AST since 2009, Dr. Verna has been dedicated to service of the AST throughout her career. She joined the Liver Intestine Community of Practice (LICOP) in 2015 and has since taken on several leadership roles.  She was elected to the LICOP Executive Committee as a Member-at-Large in 2016 and then as the Co-Chair in 2018. She has chaired the LICOP Education Subcommittee since 2016, during which she oversaw the development of white papers and webinars, and shaped the liver programming at ATC.  In addition to LICOP activities, she participated in the AST-sponsored consensus conference on the use of HCV-viremic organs and currently serves on the AST Transplant Community Summit Task Force.  Dr. Verna was recognized for her contributions to the field of transplantation in 2017 when she was awarded the AST Clinical Science Career Development Award and was named a Fellow of the AST. Dr. Verna has spent her career dedicated to advancing the field of transplantation and improving patient care by promoting research and education, goals that are clearly aligned with the mission of the AST.

Updated June 2019