Author. Voter registration advocate. Medical center spokesman.

Heat center Alonzo Mourning is busy these days. His autobiography, Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph, is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

He spent Wednesday on Florida college campuses – stopping at FIU, Florida Memorial University and the University of Central Florida – to register voters and encourage them to vote for Barack Obama.

Read about his appearance at UCF here.

And this morning, the kidney transplant recipient became the spokesman for the Miami Transplant Institute at Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. See photo (by Robert I. Siegel) of Mourning shaking hands with Dr. Pascal J. Goldschmidt, senior vice president of medical affairs and dean of the Miller School.

Mourning, who was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease in 2000, discussed how his own experience, including being surprised by the cost of anti-rejection medications, and struggling to make his return to basketball, inspired him to want to help others.

The institute has performed 7,000 kidney transplants.

“I know firsthand that transplantation saves lives and I want to lend my voice and influence to build the Miami Transplant Institute into a world leader in clinical care and research,” Mourning said in a statement.