Donation & Family Advocate

Department Overview

Help Save Lives. Support Families. Make an Impact.

Cascade Life Alliance (CLA) is seeking a compassionate, adaptable, quick‑thinking professional with a unique blend of relationship‑building skills, crisis support experience, problem‑solving, and strategic communication abilities to serve as a Donation & Family Advocate (DFA) for this region. This role is ideal for individuals who excel at navigating sensitive conversations, developing trust quickly, and guiding families through complex decisions.

The duties of this position support the mission and goals of CLA. They include ensuring effective communication, education, and collaboration with donor families, physicians, and hospital staff regarding the organ donation process and facilitating a multi‑disciplinary approach for the authorization process. The DFA supports and educates the potential donor’s next‑of‑kin regarding donation options, including providing end‑of‑life care and support. They work alongside clinical team members and collaborate with hospital staff to be both an advocate for donation and a resource to ensure a smooth donation process.

The DFA is also responsible for maintaining current education on transplant and donation practice as an expert in the field.

This position requires an individual who is comfortable addressing challenging face‑to‑face situations in a critical care (ICU) setting. It requires the ability to navigate and troubleshoot dynamic environments with constantly changing stakeholders and attention to detail. It requires the ability to develop rapport quickly, maintain strong collaboration across disciplines, independently problem‑solve, and balance the needs of acutely grieving families while ensuring a successful donation process.

Role expectations include holding professional boundaries with individuals experiencing trauma and complex grief. The position is responsible for creating a positive organ donation culture and ensuring best practices within CLA’s Donation Service Area (DSA) hospitals.

It requires extensive on‑call responsibilities, multimodal travel throughout the state of OR, WA, and  on 24‑hour call, and the ability to work long hours, sometimes overnight.

On‑Site Donation Advocacy and Family Support:

• Serve as liaison between donor families, physicians, and hospital staff to facilitate the organ donation process with care and professionalism alongside CLA staff throughout the donation case.
• Collaborate with hospital teams and clinical colleagues to ensure a seamless, multi‑disciplinary approach to the donation process.
• Proactively work to foster a positive donation culture in hospitals by building relationships with key stakeholders and advocating for best practices.
• Rotate 24‑hour call responsibilities with a team of Donation & Family Advocates, which involves rapid multimodal transportation to provide on‑site support for donor families at hospitals throughout CLA’s service area as needed.
• Provide sensitive, high‑quality bereavement support to families while helping them understand and navigate donation options with respectful consideration of culture, beliefs, trauma, and grief process.
• Collaboratively assess appropriate timing to educate potential donor's next‑of‑kin (NOK) about donation options, status of donor designation, or opportunity to authorize donation while leveraging active listening skills to guide families through critical conversations in high‑pressure environments.
• Facilitate authorization or disclosure (first‑person authorization) with legal NOK and accurately conduct a donor risk assessment interview with identified surrogate of the potential organ donor.
• Adapt to dynamic and emotionally intense situations, maintaining professional boundaries while offering empathetic, informed guidance.
• Complete accurate and timely documentation of donation related activities, including but not limited to post‑donation family and professional outcome feedback.

Donation Advocacy and Hospital Support:

• Ensure effective communication, process coordination and collaboration with hospital partner staff including nurses and physicians, CLA colleagues and…