Janice Whaley is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Donor Network West, with headquarters in northern California and northern Nevada. Donor Network West is the third largest OPO in the U.S. Whaley joined the organization in December 2018 and the organization moved well above the national average in recovery metrics four months after her arrival. Her leadership, advocacy, and operational efforts in the state(s) of California, Nevada, and the nation serve as evidence of her passion.
Prior to assuming the Chief Executive role at Donor Network West, Whaley held leadership and clinical roles in three other OPOs, achieving similar results. From 2014-2018, Whaley served as Chief Operating Officer of LifeShare of Oklahoma, essentially doubling the number of organ donors early on in her five-year tenure. Prior to her arrival at LifeShare, Whaley attended Harvard Business School in Boston. Whaley held the role of Managing Director of Clinical Operations at LifeGift in Houston, TX from 2003-2013. While in Houston, the fourth largest U.S. city, Whaley managed the complex processes involved in working with 5 transplant centers and 24 transplant programs, leading the region to record setting numbers of donors recovered. Whaley started her career and honed her skills in organ and tissue recovery at the University of Alabama, gaining expertise in numerous arenas, including organ preservation. Whaley is dually certified in organ and tissue recovery through ABTC and the AATB, respectively.
A committed advocate for donation, Whaley has served in multiple capacities on several national boards and committees related to organ and tissue donation and recovery. Most recently, she was appointed to serve a four-year term as a member of the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Council on Transplantation (ACOT). Whaley is a member of the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT) and served as president in 2003. She currently serves as an elected officer on the Board of Directors for AMAT. Whaley is also a member of the North American Association of Transplant Coordinators (NATCO), the American Society of Transplantation (AST), the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) and the American Association of Tissue Banking (AATB). She was appointed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to serve as a faculty member for the National Learning Congress (NLC) in 2012. Whaley served as the Representative for OPTN/UNOS Region 4 OPO Committee (2015 -2017).
Whaley received a Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a post graduate certificate from Harvard Business School, Executive Management Program. She graduated from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.