Samantha Hil
- Vice President of Marketing, Microsite Product Manager
Samantha Hil is a kidney transplant recipient and the inspiration for the formation of the National Kidney Registry and ImmunoFree. After she lost her kidney function at age 10 due to an undetected genetic disease, she landed in the ICU where she was given life-saving blood transfusions and was immediately put on dialysis. Both her parents were tested to be kidney donors but were deemed incompatible. Due to the antibodies created in response to her blood transfusions, nearly a dozen potential donors were tested and ruled out while she waited on dialysis. Her parents attempted to enroll her in every paired exchange program in the United States and succeeded in enrolling her in two exchange programs, but no matches were found. After an extensive donor search and five months on dialysis, she received a kidney from her cousin, was successfully transplanted, and got off dialysis.
Ms. Hil took an interest in the inner workings of the NKR from an early age. Several years after the NKR began facilitating swaps, while on a family vacation, she identified a critical innovation in the matching system. While watching her father do match runs, she noticed that he would identify a three-deep chain, convert the last paired donor to a bridge donor, and project out another three-deep chain. She suggested that the matching system be modified to eliminate the step of holding the interim bridge donors. The matching system was modified accordingly, allowing the system to eventually project out 20-deep chains, making the entire process more efficient.
Ms. Hil wrote the original specification to develop the microsite product after Dr. Sandi Kapur came up with the idea for microsites. She now manages the microsite product, leads the teams that design and manage all the NKR’s websites, and is the organization’s chief editor, responsible for writing and reviewing the company’s published material, both online and in print. In addition to launching the microsite program, she also designed other products including the microsite coaching service, the automated donor follow-up system, the donor pre-workup lab module, and the enhanced RCCAP system.
Ms. Hil received her BA in History from Vassar College in 2018 and is a Middle Ages scholar with a focus on the Crusades and the Renaissance in Italy. She assisted the Executive Director of the Captain David Crawford House in Newburgh, NY, where she curated an exhibit on suffrage in the Hudson Valley.
Samantha is a pilot, an accomplished ballroom dancer, and lives in Greenwich, CT, with her beloved dog, Bridget. Bridget is the Donor Games mascot and a regular fixture at the NKR’s Greenwich office.
