When McKinley Walsh talks about public health, she describes it as the place where many different worlds come together. History. Sociology. Medicine. Communication. Policy. Human behavior.
As an undergraduate at Ithaca College, Walsh arrived unsure of what she wanted to study. What she discovered was a discipline that allowed her to pursue all of her interests at once. “I was so interested in many different kinds of classes,” she says. “I took history classes, psychology, sociology, biology, and chemistry. The place that I found all of those intersect was public health.”
Today, that instinct for finding connections has become central to her work as Program Manager for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance (The Alliance), where she helps coordinate The Alliance’s national collaboratives focused on some of the field’s most pressing opportunities and challenges.
Whether she is supporting conversations about transplant quality, payer relationships, or artificial intelligence, Walsh’s role often centers on bringing people together, helping them stay aligned, and ensuring promising ideas become meaningful action.
“Every day I work with people from different backgrounds, and with different interests and goals,” she says. “But at the end of the day, the goal is the same. It’s to help patients.”
A Public Health Foundation
Walsh joined The Alliance in 2025 after more than five years working in public health, including positions at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Her career began through the CDC’s Public Health Associate Program, which placed early-career professionals in state and local public health agencies. Assigned to the Mississippi State Department of Health, Walsh worked across a range of maternal and child health initiatives, from newborn screening programs to lead exposure prevention.
The experience exposed her to the complex systems that shape health outcomes.
“Those things happened in the past through no fault of your own,” she says of the social and historical forces that influence health and opportunity. “They have such an impact on an individual, on their health and wellness and the opportunities available to them.” She says a high school U.S. history teacher was influential in opening up her world view and taught her to appreciate historical context.
Later, at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Walsh supported the national Sickle Cell Data Collection Program, helping coordinate work across 16 states. The initiative sought to better understand the prevalence of sickle cell disease and improve access to resources for affected individuals and families.
The work required managing relationships across numerous stakeholders, balancing competing priorities, and helping large-scale programs stay focused on their objectives.
Looking back, Walsh sees clear parallels to the work she does today.
Keeping the Train on the Tracks
Walsh’s initially began with The Alliance as a program contractor, as the organization was expanding significantly. The fit for Walsh to take on the new role proved to be a natural one.
Her first major responsibility was supporting The Alliance’s Transplant Payer Collaborative, which brings together stakeholders to explore how payers and transplant programs can work more effectively together to improve patient access and outcomes.
From there, her role expanded.
Today, Walsh supports multiple Alliance collaboratives, including the National Transplant and Donation Quality Collaborative and the Artificial Intelligence Transplant and Donation Resource Collaborative.
Her responsibilities range from coordinating meetings and agendas to facilitating communication among participants and tracking progress across workgroups. “I do a lot of keeping the train on the tracks,” she says with a laugh.
Yet the role goes beyond project management.
Because she participates in meetings across multiple committees and initiatives, Walsh often serves as a connector, helping information flow between volunteer leaders, workgroups, and Alliance staff. For collaboratives tackling complicated issues across a rapidly evolving field, that coordination is critical. “I’m the person who’s able to answer those questions,” she says. “I help establish a line of communication so that we make sure the work isn’t duplicative.”
The oldest of four children, Walsh grew up in Danbury, CT and now lives in an in-town Atlanta neighborhood. A lifelong reader, she belongs to three book clubs and an avid follower of the daily news, which she says she escapes from by watching reality television.
Seeing the Whole System
One of the aspects of transplantation that most resonates with Walsh is its inherently collaborative nature. Coming from public health, she was accustomed to multidisciplinary work. Still, she says she was struck by the sheer number of professionals and organizations involved in every successful donation and transplant.
“There are so many different kinds of people in so many different roles that all do so many different things to keep the engine powered,” she says. Surgeons, transplant coordinators, administrators, quality professionals, donor hospitals, organ procurement organizations, payer representatives, and donor family support staff all play essential roles.
“Without the surgeon, no organs get transplanted. Without the transplant administrator, nothing gets scheduled or organized. And most importantly, without a donor, there’s no transplant.”
That realization was reinforced during one of her first Alliance conferences, where she heard a transplant recipient describe receiving a double-lung transplant and reclaiming a life she once thought impossible.
“I think about all of the people that I work with every day,” Walsh says. “Without them, this person can’t breathe anymore. Because of all these people, she’s able to run marathons and go swimming and do the things she didn’t think she’d be able to do.”
The experience helped connect the collaborative work happening in meeting rooms and conference halls to the lives ultimately affected by those efforts.
Building Community Through Shared Purpose
Although Walsh’s current role is less directly patient-facing than her public health positions, she sees a clear line connecting her past and present work.
“I think at my most fulfilled when I’m helping others,” she says.
That motivation continues to shape how she views the collaboratives she supports.
The Transplant Payer Collaborative focuses on improving access and equity for patients navigating transplantation. The Quality Collaborative seeks to strengthen professional practice and support the workforce responsible for delivering care. The AI Collaborative helps organizations learn from one another and explore emerging tools responsibly.
While each initiative has a distinct focus, Walsh sees a common thread. “They all culminate in impacting and improving patient outcomes.”
That perspective aligns closely with The Alliance’s role as a convener and catalyst for shared learning across the donation and transplantation community. For Walsh, one of the organization’s greatest strengths is its ability to bring together people who might otherwise never have the opportunity to learn from one another.
In many ways, it echoes the lesson she first discovered as a college student studying public health: meaningful progress often happens at the intersection of different disciplines, experiences, and perspectives.
Looking Ahead
As donation and transplantation continue to evolve, Walsh believes collaboration will become even more important.
The field faces new opportunities in technology, quality improvement, workforce development, and access to care. Meeting those challenges will require expertise from across the continuum.
For someone who has always been drawn to the place where different ideas converge, helping facilitate those conversations feels like exactly the right fit. “It pulls on my love for the many different things intersecting,” Walsh says.
And as she helps keep national collaboratives moving forward, she remains focused on the larger purpose that unites them all.
Whether supporting quality initiatives, payer engagement, or emerging innovations, the work ultimately comes back to the same goal.
Helping people. Improving lives. And strengthening a community committed to making transplantation possible.
