Ansara Piebenga

Ansara Piebenga is the mother of two daughters. Her younger daughter was diagnosed at four months of age with a rare, genetic disease called primary hyperoxaluria. She received a year of daily (seven days a week!) hemodialysis and nightly peritoneal dialysis while being fed only through a gastric-tube. Once large enough, she received a combined kidney and liver transplant at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at 16 months of age. Ansara and her husband live in Charleston, SC and both of her daughters are in college. Ansara has mentored other families facing chronic kidney disease since 2007. She volunteers for Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, the Medical University of South Carolina, the Improving Renal Outcomes Collaborative (IROC), the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology (ASPN), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Ansara joined the Board of Transplant Families in 2021 and is excited to put her experience to work to help improve the lives of all transplant recipients.