Removing a barrier to life-saving donations

Texas A&M University students Jillian Anderson ‘26 and Claudia Garrett ’25 have been named recipients of the 2025 National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Service Award. The organization recognized Anderson, a student in the School of Public Health, and Garrett, a student in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, for their efforts advocating for university policy changes allowing college students to receive excused absences when donating stem cells or bone marrow.

NMDP is the world’s largest and most diverse donor registry supporting blood stem cell and bone marrow transplants. These procedures often are the final option for individuals diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases who have not responded to other treatments.

While some patients find a match with a family member, approximately 70% of patients do not and need assistance from an unrelated donor. However, donors who are enrolled in college often face barriers to donating because of institutional policies that don’t recognize the urgency of the donor’s participation.

The Service Award honors an individual or group who demonstrates exceptional empathy and resilience and whose advocacy for patients, donors and providers inspires hope across the community.  The two Aggies, who were the only college students to receive NMDP awards in 2025, were honored at the organization’s One Forum in November.

They were nominated by NMDP team members who were aware of the students’ efforts and selected by a cross-functional committee of staff and leaders.

“Jillian and Claudia stood out for their tenacity and determination,” said Jamie Margolis, NMDP’s senior vice president of member, donor and product operations. “By removing a major hurdle for students, they expanded the opportunity at Texas A&M for students should they get the call to be a blood stem cell donor. They also set a precedent for universities across the country to follow. Their success proves students are more than donors. They are changemakers advancing a vital mission—giving more donors the chance to say yes to saving a life.”

Revitalization

Anderson and Garrett initially met through Texas A&M’s NMDP chapter. Both were drawn to the organization because of their respective experiences supporting someone who needed this type of donation. In Anderson’s case, it was a high school friend and a family member, while Garrett’s younger brother, AJ, who had leukemia, relied on his sister’s stem cell donations.

Having that deep understanding of the life-saving importance of the donors’ role, Anderson and Garrett were committed to finding donors—but first, they had to help rebuild Texas A&M’s NMDP chapter, which had dwindled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair worked to reenergize the chapter and reengage members in its mission of educating and registering potential donors.

Their efforts soon bore fruit as more and more Aggies started signing up for the registry.

“One of our most successful registration drives was over three days in March 2025 when we had almost 800 students sign up,” Garrett said. “Over the course of the 2024-25 school year, we had around 1,500 students join the registry.”

Hitting a barrier

Although the registry has grown quickly, only a small percentage of these students will prove a match.

“Previously, 1% of donors would have a chance of being contacted,” Garrett said. “The registry has been updated with the implementation of new sciences, but based on that number, that’s 15 Aggies who might get called during their time at Texas A&M.”

Yet these college students who are called to donate often face an institutional barrier that precludes their participation.

“One of the top reasons that college students say no is that they can’t get excused absences or move their exams around,” said Anderson, who learned about this widespread issue at NMDP’s 2024 Advocacy Summit.

That exact scenario happened to Anderson’s high school friend.

“Her only match backed out because the student’s class was having an exam and the student couldn’t get an excused absence. The student said, ‘Sorry, I can’t do this anymore because I can’t move around my schedule and I don’t know how to explain this to my professor,’” Anderson said. “I thought my friend’s circumstances were unique; I didn’t know that this was a national problem. Now I could put a name and a face to this issue.”

The public health major, who was NMDP chapter president, began considering how to advocate for this change and soon found an important ally in Garrett, who served as the chapter’s secretary.

“This immediately struck a chord with me because I was a donor for my younger brother during his battle with leukemia,” Garrett recalled. “I remember how difficult that time was for me. I missed almost a week of class—and I was just in high school. A college donor who is an unrelated person will have a difficult time explaining why they need to be away. And if they had an unexpected donation, like I did, it would be difficult to get the paperwork done, go to a dean, and go through all these processes in time to be available.”

Working together, the two Aggies formed an advocacy committee and began charting a plan to change the rules.

“We did research, learned parliamentary procedure and built a campus coalition of people who would support us,” Anderson said, adding that she relied on lessons from her coursework as well as two of her School of Public Health professors, Sherry Lin, PhD, and Selina Stasi, PhD.

Educating faculty

After developing a proposal, the two students began the journey with Texas A&M Faculty Senate Rules and Regulations Committee. According to Kristen Harrell, PhD, associate vice president in Texas A&M’s Division of Student Affairs, students initiate approximately one out of four rule revision proposals. Of those, approximately 16% complete the full process and result in a rule change.

Anderson and Garrett primarily focused on educating committee members about the proposed rule’s parameters and importance. They realized that their message was resonating when committee members started explaining the proposed changes to colleagues who had missed meetings.

The committee eventually passed the donor-related proposal, and the full Faculty Senate soon followed suit.

“We were taking summer classes and one day, we checked the student rule website,” Garrett said. “There was our rule in all its glory.”

Administrators and faculty were impressed with these Aggies’ commitment to removing the barrier for college students who were donors.

“Jillian and Claudia really did a nice job in working through the process,” Harrell said. “They took the time to think through their original proposal, were responsive to feedback and prioritized showing up. All these things made a great deal of difference in their success in this process.”

Helping others

After this achievement, both Aggies plan to continue their advocacy work. Garrett, who graduated in December, is applying to medical school but remains committed to working with NMDP in memory of her younger brother, who passed away in 2022. Anderson, who is a first-generation college student and will graduate in May, plans to earn a master’s degree before pursuing an advocacy career supporting individuals with hidden disabilities.

Both also are committed to assisting other NMDP chapters who want to advocate for a similar rule change and are in the process of advising students at four universities.

“I think this award is about giving hope to other schools to hopefully do the same thing,” Anderson said. “We want to spark that change and create a lasting impact.”