Deputy Director of Agency Services Discusses
Organ Donation Partnership at National Forum


Leslie Daspit of South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, Bob Grill of New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, and Jeffrey Coleman of Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle Services discuss Motor Vehicle partnerships with Donate Life America President David Fleming.

INDIANAPOLIS, NJ - October 22, 2007 - Deputy Director of Agency Services, Bob Grill, was a recent contributor at Donate Life America’s national conference to highlight the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s (MVC’s) successful partnership with the organ and tissue donation community.

Donate Life America, which oversees the national branding and public affairs side of donation, holds this meeting biannually as a platform for the Donor Designation Collaborative. This national initiative aims to increase the number of donor designations in the U.S. to 100 million by April 2008. Bob serves as the MVC liaison for the New Jersey Collaborative team, whose “Donate Life NJ” campaign has set a goal of registering 2.1 million donors.

“It’s truly an honor to be part of this initiative,” Grill said. “It’s amazing how much progress Team New Jersey has been able to make in less than a year. It can make a huge difference in the number of lives saved in New Jersey.”
At the conference, Grill participated in a panel discussion with Motor Vehicle representatives from Ohio and South Carolina, moderated by Donate Life America President David Fleming. He outlined many of the ways MVC has helped make organ and tissue donation more accessible to customers at the Motor Vehicle Agencies, including posters, educational brochures, inserts in mail-to-home registration and renewal forms, and plans for volunteer onsite informational tables.

Grill also emphasized the importance of a good relationship between MVC employees and Organ Procurement Organizations, publicly acknowledging NJ Sharing Network employee Jessica Melore and John Green, of Gift of Life Donor Program, both in the audience.

“It’s been such a joy working with these organizations. They have really been doing their part to understand the needs of our employees, while communicating the critical importance of asking the customer, ‘Would you like to be an organ donor?’. We’ve had training sessions with all Agency Managers and Supervisors, and individual trainings with Customer Service Representatives,” concluded Grill.

Many attendees approached Bob for advice on forging relationships with their own MVC representatives and thanked him for attending the conference. New Jersey’s partnership was seen as a model and inspiration for other states.

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