Elizabeth Crais Has Undergone a Second Kidney Transplant
Elizabeth Crais PhD’87 is currently a professor at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. She is also an autism researcher on a team that developed a screening tool for infants, a home-based intervention for toddlers, and a school-based intervention for preschool children. While at the UW, Elizabeth was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a disease that runs in her family, with her mother and two of her sisters diagnosed. In 2004, she received a kidney transplant from one of her research colleagues at UNC and more recently was the recipient of a double kidney-liver transplant in 2021 from a deceased donor. Elizabeth and a colleague, Carol Offen (who is a kidney donor), just completed a book titled The Insider’s Guide to Living Kidney Donation: Everything You Need to Know If You Give (or Get) the Greatest Gift to provide practical information for kidney donors and recipients about the transplant process. Both Elizabeth and Carol are active in the kidney donation community and Carol has a blog discussing donation. Elizabeth earned her PhD at the UW in communication sciences and disorders.
