Donation Essentials Blog
Staff Spotlight: Ryan McGoffin
We’re so proud to work with each and every one of our staff members here at Donor Alliance. In our Staff Spotlight, we like to take a minute to share who we are and why we work at Donor Alliance. In this month’s staff spotlight, meet Ryan McGoffin, a Tissue Recovery Coordinator. In that role, Ryan helps facilitate the surgical recovery of donated human tissues for transplants.
This Month’s Staff Spotlight is on Ryan McGoffin:
Name: Ryan McGoffin
Position: Tissue Recovery Coordinator
Years at Donor Alliance: 4 years
Tell us a little about your role with Donor Alliance: My role at Donor Alliance is to facilitate the surgical recovery of donated human tissues for transplants. Most people familiar with the donor registry understand the role that donated organs have in saving lives, but few are familiar with the life-saving and life-enhancing aspects of donated tissues. Through collaboration with our donor services coordinators, I evaluate donor medical records and medical social histories and plan recovery of tissues in accordance with guidelines set in place by our processing partners. Once a donor has been deemed eligible for tissue donation, I perform the aseptic surgical recovery of all tissues as well as the documentation of the recoveries per AATB and FDA regulatory standards. Recently I have had the opportunity to act as a preceptor for new Tissue Recovery Coordinators to train them in all aspects of the job. I also maintain our processor criteria standards, participate/facilitate PDSA’s for process improvements, and work on basic upkeep of the recovery center through equipment validations, instruments sterilization and other day to day activities!
What made you want to work for Donor Alliance? Before I worked at Donor Alliance I worked for AlloSource, one of our processing partners for musculoskeletal tissues. I first interned in their Research and Development Department in college and then returned to work as a processing technician in their core, creating surgical grafts from the tissues recovered by Donor Alliance and other OPO’s around the country. This was sort of my introduction to the world of transplantation and it set me off looking for more. Donor Alliance specifically seemed like an organization that thrives on its desire to fulfill the mission of saving lives through organ and tissue donation. I personally feel very connected to the donors, donor families and recipients through the work I do every day. I love that I get to come to work knowing that each and every one of my coworkers shares the same mission driven ethic I feel. It is especially empowering knowing that the work we do as an organization is able to help so many people in the community.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do for fun? Currently I am back in school, so my free time is spent mostly studying and doing homework. I’m also a relatively new home owner and planning a wedding! I’ve had a ton of fun doing house projects with my fiancé and planning our wedding and our future! Together we enjoy hiking, camping and playing with our two dogs. On my own I am an avid (formerly competitive) weightlifter, and a voracious reader and podcast listener. I especially enjoy nonfiction and science fiction books, and any podcast where I can learn something interesting.
What piece of advice would you give your younger self? This definitely depends on which Ryan I would go back to visit…I think the most comprehensive advice would be that life is short and unpredictable, the more you learn the less you know, and there’s no reason to be anyone but yourself. There’s an essay I read at least once a year; a letter from Hunter Thompson to his friend, “On Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life.” I’d probably stumble through the doors of time, throw that letter into the unwitting hands of my former self, and then disappear back to the present and hope for the best.
