Danielle J Haakinson, MD

Biography

Dr. Danielle Haakinson received her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Colorado in 1998, followed by working several years in biomedical research lab of Dr. E. Chester Ridgway studying diabetes and endocrinopathies. She graduated from University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2008 and then completed her residency training in general surgery as well as an abdominal transplant surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale Arizona.

Dr. Haakinson joined the University of Michigan Health transplant team in 2023 after practicing for the past six years as the Director for the Center for Living Organ Donors at Yale. While there she developed a Robotic Kidney Transplant Program, one of the first half a dozen of these specialized programs in the country and now has brought that practice to the University of Michigan. She performs kidney and liver transplants for adult and pediatric patients, robotic surgery, donor and native nephrectomies, hepatobiliary and revisional transplant surgery.

Dr. Haakinson's research interests include leveraging normothermic machine perfusion as a platform for assessment and repair for marginal deceased donor grafts, as well as optimizing care for the metabolically complex patient. She is a passionate clinician, educator and researcher who has appointments on the Scientific Review Committee as well as Recovery and Preservation Committee for the American Society of Transplantation, and the Legislative and Regulatory Committee for the American Society of Transplant Surgery.

She is the mother of two children Zain (17) and Zella (12). In her free time she enjoys music, the outdoors and cooking with her husband who is a professional chef. The family enjoys travel as well as their annual retreat to Cuttyhunk Island.