Dr. Jason Vanatta, program director at Methodist Transplant Institute, was just 13 when he found his life’s calling.

It happened Valentine’s Day 1984 when a young child named Stormie Jones made national headlines after she received the world’s first heart-liver transplant at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Vanatta’s hometown.

The landmark surgery was performed by Dr. Thomas Starzl, known as the “father of modern transplantation” for having achieved the first successful human liver transplant two decades prior.

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“It was the medicine, the saving of lives and the newness of it,” said Vanatta, who came of age in the 1980s just south of downtown Pittsburgh.

Historically known as “Steel City,” Pittsburgh at the time saw the decline of the industry that had been central to its economy and its identity. 

But Starzl’s medical innovation had made Pittsburgh the global center of transplant surgery, which helped breathe new life into a community demoralized by the collapse of steel manufacturing. 

“If you go to Pittsburgh now, it’s reborn,” Vanatta said. “It’s a new city, and it’s because of what he did at the medical center. The largest employer in Pittsburgh right now is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.”

Vanatta majored in philosophy at Boston University. But, after earning his degree, the persistent draw of medicine brought him back home to Pittsburgh. There, he earned a second bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the city’s university.

Vanatta went on to study medicine in Philadelphia at MCP Hahnemann University School, which later integrated with Drexel University College of Medicine.

While in medical school in the mid-1990s, he made clinical rotations in Pittsburgh and worked with the hospital’s organ procurement organization on a community project to educate the public about the importance of organ donation. 

It evolved into an opportunity for Vanatta to participate in organ procurement flights. 

“We’re flying all over the place with these guys and getting the organs,” he said. “But the one thing that was so notable was that I would go back with them to the hospital, get off the elevator, and there’d be boxes of organs just sitting there – waiting for the ones that were happening to finish so those organs could be put into the next patient. Pittsburgh was the epicenter of transplant. To this day, you probably can’t go anywhere in the world where your transplant surgeon, by the family tree, isn’t linked back to Pittsburgh.”

That tree includes Vanatta’s own mentor, Dr. Carlos Esquivel, a Costa Rican surgeon who trained under Starzl and today serves as the director of Adult Liver Transplantation at Stanford University, where Vanatta completed his fellowship.

After leaving California, Vanatta was offered a position as a transplant surgeon at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. He accepted, and stayed in Memphis for 10 years.

There was a stint as a transplant surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Transplant Center in Florida, but Vanatta returned to Methodist in September 2020. 

“I didn’t like my job in Florida, and I didn’t like the culture,” said Vanatta, who trained at Stanford University in California and Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. “So, I came back to the culture of the job that I enjoy here.”

In August 2022, Vanatta became interim director of the James D. Eason Transplant Institute, named in honor of his predecessor.

Eason had brought national attention to the institute in 2009, when he performed Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs’ liver transplant there.

But he parted ways with Methodist last summer for reasons that have not been disclosed. And in January of this year, Methodist announced Vanatta had been named program director of the institute.

Although Eason’s name remains on the building for now, the facility has been referred to as Methodist Transplant Institute since his departure to reflect the leadership change.

“I have enjoyed working with Dr. Vanatta over the last several months,” said Michael Ugwueke, president and CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. “His lead-from-behind approach, coupled with a strategic focus on elevating our transplant program to better meet the needs of our community, makes him perfectly suited for this role.” 

Methodist Transplant Institute is a state-of-the-art facility known for broad success with liver, kidney and pancreas transplants. The institute has 10,000 new and existing patients and another 800 on the waitlist. 

It’s a life-and-death undertaking and an all-consuming one.

“I don’t have a lot of free time,” said Vanatta, 51.

A man of considerable height, his presence is unmistakable as he makes his rounds through the institute, acknowledging every patient and staff member he encounters in the halls. 

“I appreciate that Dr. Vanatta is down to earth,” said Dr. Manish Talwar, transplant nephrologist with Methodist Transplant Institute. “He treats everyone on the team with equal respect and dignity, so everyone feels valued.”

Gayatri Jaishankar, senior director and transplant administrator of the Methodist Transplant Institute, has spent more than a decade working alongside Vanatta. 

“His leadership style is collaborative in approach, progressive in ideas, and values each member of the transplant team for the knowledge and expertise they bring,” she said.

Vanatta, who leads a team of more than 100 physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, nurses and additional clinical and support staff work within the Institute, said teamwork is at the essence of Methodist Transplant Institute’s success.

“It’s clearly not about one person,” he said. “I think that was what was lost in the previous administration here. It’s me; it’s the three other surgeons I work with; it’s the hepatologists and the nephrologists. It’s all the people in the operating rooms.”