The Wayne State University School of Medicine's Office of Diversity and Inclusion launches its 2017-18 Speaker Series with a presentation by the senior transplant surgeon for Henry Ford Hospital.

Jason Denny, M.D., will present "Dilemmas in Live Donor Kidney Transplantation" at 4 p.m. Sept. 26 in Scott Hall's Green Auditorium. The interactive discussion will explore the ethical dilemmas in surgical transplantation when the science is easy and the decision-making challenging.

Born in Georgetown, Guyana, Dr. Denny, 47, is one of approximately 50 African-American transplant surgeons in the nation. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from State University New York at Stony and his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He completed a seven-year residency in cancer research and transplant procedures, and completed a fellowship in transplantation at The Ohio State University.

He is the senior staff surgeon for the Henry Ford Transplant Institute, a clinical assistant professor of Surgery for the WSU School of Medicine, surgical director of the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program of the Henry Ford Transplant Institute and chair of the Detroit Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program.

In or out of the operating room, Dr. Denny he spends a great deal of time mentoring and educating medical students and his patients. "I take time with my patients and I meet them where they are," he said. "I give them my time. I know them and they know me, which breaks down all the barriers. I make sure they leave with more information than they came in with."