For more than four decades, OneLegacy has been the bridge to life for 20 million Southern Californians who one day may be in need of a lifesaving or life-altering organ, eye or tissue transplant. For its nearly 340 employees, OneLegacy has also been the bridge to a fulfilling career where each of its team members knows that they are making a meaningful difference in championing the power of donation.
“It feels good to know that all of our work contributes to saving lives,” said Jeanna Garcia, scheduling/payroll coordinator at OneLegacy. “I feel that all of my coworkers believe, as do I, in OneLegacy’s mission and I am proud to have a pink dot on my driver’s license.”
Jeanna is one of the many women working in various capacities throughout OneLegacy.
Some work in OneLegacy’s home office in downtown Los Angeles and some in the renowned OneLegacy Transplant Recovery Center in Redlands, while others work throughout the communities where they are actively engaged every day with hospitals, donor families and community groups to encourage more people to say ‘yes’ to donation.
Their skills span from clinical to administrative and can be seen at all levels of the organization in finance, marketing, operations, information technology, donor engagement and beyond. Many of these women hold critical leadership positions at OneLegacy, ranging from chief financial officer to medical director to senior vice president of external partnerships – each and every one playing an integral role in the organization’s daily operations.
As the Los Angeles business community honors “Women in Healthcare,” OneLegacy salutes with pride and gratitude the women in all capacities throughout its organization who are helping to drive lifesaving innovations in organ donation for families throughout the greater Southern California region.
“I come from a different culture where donation was not prevalent,” said procurement transplant coordinator Indah Sari. “Making a difference has always been my passion and at OneLegacy, I am fulfilling that passion by helping to save lives.”
Indah and her colleagues at OneLegacy work with more than 200 hospitals and 10 transplant centers — as well as sheriffs’ and coroners’ offices – to serve one of the most diverse populations in the country – stretching across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Kern counties.
Further, OneLegacy is part of the United States’ organ donation network, which is recognized as the best in the world, with the highest deceased donor transplant rate of any country and a donation rate nearly double that of Europe. In 2021 alone, despite a global pandemic, OneLegacy enabled the transplant of 1,688 organs from 591 donors – an 8% increase in organ donation from the prior year, marking the seventh consecutive year of record-setting organ donation and transplantation. During this same timeframe, more than 155,000 lives were healed through tissue donation and transplantation and 1,037 vision-restoring corneal transplants were enabled thanks to the OneLegacy Eye Bank.
“I’ve seen through friends how much donation has impacted their families’ lives. That joy and happiness that they’ve experienced has pushed me to continue helping to provide that act of service to more people,” said OneLegacy surgical recovery technician Christina Moy. “I enjoy that I’m able to utilize my training as a surgical technologist to continue to assist families by providing the gift of life and health.”
As Christina knows, one organ donor can save up to eight lives and one tissue donor can help as many as 75 others heal. She also knows that these lifesaving transplants would not be possible without generous donors and their families who, in the midst of tragedy, understand that donation is more about life than it is about death for it allows them to leave a lasting, living legacy to their loved one. Nationally, there are approximately 107,000 people waiting to receive a lifesaving heart, liver, lung, kidney or pancreas transplant. While transplant waiting lists have declined over recent years, the need for transplants is growing far faster than potential donors, given that less than 1% of all deaths qualify for donation.
Just as the opportunity to donate and to receive a lifesaving transplant knows no national, racial, ethnic or religious boundaries nor sexual orientation, so too the hiring philosophy at OneLegacy have no such restraints. What is required most of all is the right heart. Donation development coordinator Colleen Okyere highlighted this sentiment perfectly when asked what she enjoys most about working at OneLegacy: “the opportunity to give back and to know that my work has a purpose greater than myself.”
Many exciting opportunities are awaiting at OneLegacy, including those connected to the organization’s planned relocation this summer to a new state-of-the-art headquarters in Azusa that will serve as a critical connector for Southern California’s regional healthcare system.
To find out more about joining this mission-driven company, go to onelegacy.org/careers.
