Link to the livestream: 11:55am
3-29-2022
LifeShare Oklahoma
Panelists
Jeff Orlowski is President and CEO of LifeShare of Oklahoma, and President of the LifeShare Foundation. Jeff has 34 years of experience in organ and tissue donation. Jeff currently serves as UNOS Region 4 Councilor.
He is a Councilor for the International Society Donation and Procurement, and a member of the UNOS and OPTN Boards, the UNOS Corporate Affairs Committee, the UNOS/OPTN Finance Committee, the Donation Board of Trustees for the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) Advocacy Committee, and is Chair of the Oklahoma Governor’s Advancement of Wellness Advisory Council. He is a Past President of AOPO and of Donate Life America,
and has served on numerous Boards. He has been honored with numerous awards, including the AATB
Jeanne C. Mowe Distinguished Service Award, AOPO/Sallop “Excellence in Leadership” Award, AOPO
President’s Award, and as the 2020 Top Midsize Business Leader by the Daily Oklahoman.
Elke Meeùs is an attorney at McAfee & Taft. At McAfee, Elke represents clients primarily in a broad range of complex business and commercial litigation.
Elke graduated from Oklahoma City University School of Law, where she served as an editor of the Oklahoma City University Law Review, was a three-time member of the Jessup International Moot Court Competition Team, and was named to the Order of the Barristers. She was also the recipient of several honors and awards, including the OCU Pro Bono Service Award, the OCU Public Interest & Exceptional Community Service Award, and the Oklahoma Bar Association Financial Institutions & Commercial Law Award.
Before becoming an attorney, Elke lived in Belgium, where she was an international journalist working for several radio and print media outlets. She covered such topics as economic affairs, European and international news and politics. She also worked as a spokeswoman and French press officer for the European Parliament – the European Union’s legislative body – for six-and-a-half years prior to relocating to the United States.
In her free time she used to be a skydiver, a hobby which led her to meet her future husband Kelley who was stationed in Europe at the time, and who shared her passion of jumping out of perfectly good planes. In 2012, Kelley tragically passed away in Oklahoma, and made the beautiful gift of life to seven individuals through Life Share.
Chair of the Day/Moderator
Jim Sharrock holds a BA in economics from the University of Oklahoma and a JD from the University of Oklahoma School of law.
Jim practiced law in Amarillo, Texas for 12 years after law school, before returning to Oklahoma in 1985 to join McAfee & Taft, where he became a shareholder. On December 10, 2015, he called the firm to retire after being added to the waiting list for a heart and liver transplant. He rejoined the firm in 2016 after it worked. He retired again at the end of 2017.
Jim served as President of Club 29 and two terms as Chair of the Club 29 Foundation. He has also served Leadership Oklahoma City, Rebuilding Together OKC, and the Edmond Public School Foundation as President, and Youth Leadership Exchange as Chair. He has and continues to serve on the boards of other community organizations.
He has been recognized for his professional and community service work including listing in Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers in Business and The Best Lawyers of America. He received the Oklahoma Bar Association Outstanding Service to the Public Award, the Rotary International Four Avenues of Service Award, The Journal Record Leadership in Law Award (twice) and the Leadership Oklahoma City Taylor Servant Leadership Award.
Five years ago, Jim spoke to the Club about his experience as a heart/liver transplant recipient. Since that time, he has become very involved in the transplant community. In 2017, he joined the board of LifeShare Oklahoma, where he now serves as Chair. In 2018, he was named as the Region 4 representative to the Patient Affairs Committee of the Organ Procurement and Transportation Network, representing Oklahoma and Texas. In 2019, he was asked to serve the remaining term of an open seat on the boards of the OPTN and the United Network for Organ Sharing and has since been reelected to a three-year term. The OPTN and UNOS are the national organizations that set transplant allocation policy and manage the network that matches donor organs with recipients.