A kidney for her mom, a marathon for herself
Penn Medicine's benefits director is making room for real life, for herself and the whole workforce.
On a Wednesday in September, Jen Brady, MA, RD, scheduled her surgery to give her mother one of her kidneys. Then she registered for her third Boston Marathon.
Signing up to run the April 2026 race six months after donating an organ was a quiet declaration: Brady could make a life-changing gift to her mom while holding onto one of the parts of herself that mattered most.
“Running is my way of keeping control of my thoughts, and giving myself something to work for, and reaching my goals, and doing hard things,” she said. “That’s something that I never want to not have.”
Brady’s work as the director of benefits and well-being at Penn Medicine is rooted in a simple truth: When people come to work, they don’t stop being caregivers, parents, and human beings. Her own “whole-person” story—how she supported her mother through kidney donation, using Penn’s living donor paid leave benefit herself, and then trained for a marathon just weeks after—exemplifies the very employee well-being and caregiving support she works to make possible.
Her care team with Penn Medicine’s Center for Living Donation assured Brady that after a short period away from running to allow her body to recover from the surgery, she could expect to return to her pre-surgery fitness levels. Nephrologist Amanda Leonberg-Yoo, MD, the medical director of Penn Medicine’s living kidney donor program and a runner herself, even offered to be a training buddy.
'Everybody has their own story'
In her professional life, Brady exudes the empowered-and-empowering energy of a lifelong athlete—the kind of leader who never needs a microphone to command the attention of a room. Outside the office, Brady is deeply devoted to her small family. As an only child who has cared for her parents during sickness and health, she also makes a loving and supportive home with her husband and two young sons, navigating the demands of busy academic and athletic schedules.
She openly talks about her own experiences, to help employees connect the dots between their lives and the health system’s benefits. Caring for her father when he had lung cancer in 2020-2021 and ultimately losing him—a devastating experience—brought her professional mission into deeper focus.
“There are so many things that happen outside of the work walls, that people don’t know about, that our employees are dealing with,” she said. “Everybody has their own story to tell. I found this burning passion to help people.”
Stepping in to help
A few years after her father died, Brady's mother, Terri, discovered her kidney function levels were getting worse. Brady knew she lived with diabetes and high blood pressure, but her mother had managed her health on her own. Brady hadn’t realized the extent of her mom’s kidney disease.
Brady transferred her mom’s care to Penn Medicine, where nephrologist Matthew Denker, MD, MSCE, helped slow the decline but told them a kidney transplant would eventually be necessary.
By the spring of 2025, Terri had entered end-stage kidney disease. She needed a new kidney to avoid initiating dialysis—a lifesaving but physically draining treatment that would be time-intensive for both her and her daughter, who would take her to the appointments.
Brady knew what she wanted to do.
“It had always been in the back of my mind that when the time came, I was going to do everything I could to save her,” she said. “I thought, I couldn’t save my dad, but maybe I can save my mom.”
The power of living donation
Living donors play a critical role in kidney transplantation. While people on the national transplant list spend an average of three to five years waiting for a deceased kidney donor, there’s no wait with a living donor, and better outcomes, too—organs transplanted from living donors typically last longer.
Working with the team at Penn’s Center for Living Donation, Brady moved through the testing process alongside Terri’s niece and one of her close friends.
In cases like this, the transplant team first decides if the potential donors meet the health and other requirements to donate a kidney to anyone, and then whether they are compatible with the person they want to help. Thanks to the National Kidney Registry’s paired exchange and voucher programs, living kidney donors don’t have to be a match for their intended recipient for that person to still benefit from the gift.
But Brady was a perfect match for her mother.
A life-changing call
When the transplant coordinator called with the news, Brady was parked outside her mother’s house; they had just been to see her 11-year-old son perform in “James and the Giant Peach.” Moments later, Terri, who typically doesn’t show much emotion, was overcome. She had been so scared about going on dialysis.
“I don’t know that I've seen her cry as hard as she did that day,” Brady said.
Their surgeries at the Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 1, 2025, were straightforward and complication-free. Terri stayed in the hospital for five days. While recovery took time, she felt a dramatic increase in energy almost immediately; color returned to her face, and she no longer needed blood pressure medicine.
Brady spent one night in the hospital and then took it easy for the rest of October, using Penn Medicine’s policy providing up to 30 days of paid leave to employees who donate a major organ, bone marrow, or stem cells. (All active regular full-time and regular part-time employees who have completed 90 days of service are eligible.)
She followed her care team’s exercise orders. For the first six weeks post-donation, she simply walked so as not to jar her core muscles as they healed from the incision. Then, she started back with short runs. (Patients who aren’t already serious athletes would typically be advised to wait longer for high-intensity workouts.)
At Thanksgiving, Brady felt especially thankful to know that her mother would never be on dialysis, and that Terri’s quality of life had greatly improved because of Brady’s gift.
By January, the only obstacle in her four- to five-day-a-week training program was the winter weather. When people asked her how she felt, Brady would answer, “the same as I did when I had two kidneys.” Her diet hadn’t changed, and she was able to do the things she loved.
Leonberg-Yoo instructed Brady that maintaining hydration and electrolytes would be especially important when doing long runs, now that her kidney was working on its own, and she had to avoid ibuprofen to protect her remaining kidney. In general, living kidney donation gives donors a greater awareness of their own health and the desire to maintain a healthy and balanced life post-donation, Leonberg-Yoo said.
Brady’s story is proof of the amazing things a body can do after surgery, said Mary Cate Wilhelm, PA-C, a physician assistant for living kidney donors at the Center for Living Donation. But Wilhelm wants everyone to feel like they could donate a kidney—whether they enjoy running marathons or walking their dog.
“My hope is that some day in the near future, discussion of living donation will become commonplace,” Wilhelm said. “While the act of donation is in fact heroic, many donors don’t identify with this term. Instead, they want others to know that you don’t need to feel like a ‘hero’ to donate a kidney. You need to be in good health, and the rest—surgery and recovery—is often described by our patients as temporary, doable, or even easy.”
Making room for real life
In the days leading up to the surgery, Brady came across a quote:
“If the why is powerful, the how is easy.”
It resonated. With a clear purpose—to help her mother—donating a kidney didn’t even feel like a decision. But Brady knows that in caregiving, the strongest “why” alone often can’t sustain people through the challenges. She is always thinking about how to ease those burdens that other Penn Medicine employees carry outside of work, because so often, people need support.
“How can we help our employees thrive, both at home and at work, and what do we need to fill those gaps, and how do we make employees aware of it?” she said. “If they’re not thriving at home, they’re not going to come to work and thrive. And I know because I’ve been through it.”
Brady’s experience caring for her father during the pandemic highlighted the administrative and logistical challenges of supporting a loved one while balancing work and raising a family. In 2024, the health system began offering employees free access to Wellthy, a health care navigation and concierge support service that helps employees and their loved ones manage a wide range of life events. From navigating insurance, financial challenges, coordinating child care or senior care, to supporting a child with special needs or managing a personal or family health diagnosis, Wellthy eases the burden of time-consuming tasks by connecting members with master’s-level clinicians who provide hands-on support throughout each care journey.
Now, when Brady talks to employees about available benefits and support, she will also share her experience as an organ donor and the importance of making room for doing what you love.
“My story shows that having one kidney doesn’t need to limit you from doing the things you love,” she said. “You can do this selfless thing, and can take care of the people you love, and still pursue your goals to be the person you want to be.”