Grace Harcek - Donor Alliance - Baldridge Excellence Framework

The Denver ASQ Section is excited to host Grace Harcek from Donor Alliance. Grace will be providing an overview of the Baldridge Excellence Framework and how her organization, Donor Alliance, implemented the framework and was awarded the 2018 Malcolm Baldrige National Award.

Grace Harcek, BSN, RN, CTBS, Director of Performance Excellence, Donor Alliance is responsible for overseeing Donor Alliance’s performance excellence program, Grace led the organization’s journey to the Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence Peak Award in 2015 and 2020, as well as 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 thirty years of experience in health care, including twenty in quality, Grace has served as an examiner for both the Malcolm Baldrige program and Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence program. She has also held numerous leadership positions in the field of organ and tissue donation, including past 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.

Donor Alliance is the federally designated OPO for Colorado and most of Wyoming, which means they are one of 56 unique organizations across the country responsible for the evaluation, recovery, preservation, and transportation of organs for transplantation. In addition to its responsibilities as an OPO, Donor Alliance also helps save and heal lives through tissue donation. Every year, tissue transplants provide lifesaving and healing hope to tens of thousands of people suffering from disease, injury, trauma, or blindness. Donor Alliance is also unique in that they promote local registration into the Donate Life Colorado and the Donate Life Wyoming donor registries.

The Baldrige Program oversees the nation's only Presidential award for performance excellence while offering a wide array of award-winning products and services, including the world-renowned Baldrige Excellence Framework.