Dr. Jens Goebel

Advocate, physician, scientist, mentor, and friend

Jens Wolf-Dieter Göbel was born in Hanover, Germany, on August 19, 1961. Growing up in post-war Germany gave him a lifelong commitment to stand up for the vulnerable, ease suffering, and oppose violence. He studied medicine at Heidelberg University, with a Fulbright year at the University of Massachusetts and a German Academic Exchange scholarship at the University of South Carolina. Working in a research lab there, he found his passion for nephrology.

After residency and chief residency in pediatrics at the University of South Alabama and a pediatric nephrology fellowship at Tulane, Jens built a career that touched thousands of patients, trainees, and colleagues. As Medical Director of Kidney Transplantation at Cincinnati Children's, he grew the program into a national referral center for the most complex patients. At Children's Hospital Colorado he started the living donor kidney transplant program and fellowship training. At Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, he strengthened a program he loved.

In 2015, Jens co-founded IROC and went on to serve as its President and a Board member. He partnered with patients and families to create resources for youth with kidney transplants on rejection, transition, and mental health. He also advocated with hospital leaders and state legislatures so that every child who could benefit from a transplant could get one, including children who were uninsured or faced immigration barriers.

With patients, he talked with even young children about their own interests, so they would see themselves as capable rather than sick. With trainees, he guided through curiosity instead of correction. Outside medicine he loved Fußball. He had played semi-professionally, and every World Cup he sent friends and colleagues his famous "Cupdate" emails. His final act of service was organ and tissue donation.

Read his obituary in Pediatric Transplantation