Operations

Operations: How We Save Lives

Grace Harcek, 2019

Grace Harcek, BSN, RN

Director of Performance Excellence, Donor Alliance

Responsible for overseeing the organization’s performance excellence program, Grace led the journey to the Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence Peak Award in 2015 and the Malcolm Baldrige National Award in 2018. Throughout this pursuit she drove staff engagement with the Baldrige Excellence Framework through an integrated planning process. With twenty-five years of experience in health care, including sixteen in quality, Grace has served as a Malcolm Baldrige Examiner and held numerous leadership positions in the field of organ and tissue donation, including Chair of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations Quality Improvement Council. A registered nurse, Grace holds a BSN from Regis University and a BA from Randolph-Macon College.

Cassie Hertert

Technology Solutions Engineer, Donor Alliance

As the organization’s Technology Solutions Engineer, Cassie leads initiatives to align process and workforce with the technology needed to save lives. After 13 years of driving results through innovation and relationships within the healthcare technology sector, Cassie came to Donor Alliance in 2015. During her tenure, she has helped to develop the industry’s first data summit, design a systematic idea management process, and lead a nationally recognized effort to embed data quality in daily operations. She believes in the power of purpose to ignite momentum and is proud to merge her professional commitment with a personal passion supporting organ and tissue donation and transplantation.