
Donor Specialist
- San Antonio, TX
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Approaching and educating medically competent military members and veterans about the potential to become a brain donor at time of their death, and about the opportunity for them to participate in the Brain Donation Awareness Registry.
- Lead and implement all aspects of community partner engagement, stakeholder coordination, and direct interactions with service members and veterans for assigned commands.
- Establish and support regional community partnership and outreach events initiatives to strengthen engagement efforts.
- Approaching and educating families of potential donors about brain donation at the time of death of their military or veteran family member.
- Serving as the primary point of contact to be notified about potential donors and answering questions from families, healthcare workers, funeral home workers, or individuals who would like to know more about the donation program.
- Screening donors, registering study participants, and coordinating with local coroners, medical examiners, tissue transport providers, to facilitate brain donation for research.
- Collaborating with Peer/Family Educators on recruitment activities.
- Performing this work under general supervision where discretion is required, such as in the homes of military members, veterans, and their family members; in the rooms of patients in healthcare facilities; and in funeral homes.
- Verifying donor identity
- Reviewing next of kin consent and chain of custody documentation
- Assisting local dieners, coroners, and pathologists with donated specimens
- Completion of documents and records for each donation
- Sectioning and processing the tissue according to the protocols of the project
- Preparing the specimens for shipping
- Coordinating the transport of the body following tissue recovery.
- Protecting the rights and welfare of all human research participants involved in research in accordance with federal regulations and sponsoring agency policies and procedures
- Adhering to and supporting all Federal regulations and DoD policies and procedures instituted to safeguard protected health information (PHI)
- Assuring that all key personnel involved in human research have completed the required education for the protection of human research participants
- Developing materials and tools necessary to appropriately train individuals involved in the conduct of the study around issues related to (but not limited to) protocol requirements, schedule of visits, execution of research plan
- Attending investigator meetings as required or requested
- Preparing other study materials as requested, including but not limited to, informed consent document, case report forms (CRFs), enrollment logs, and study data
- Assuring that the study complies with all terms and conditions
- Coordinating participant tests and procedures, including interviewing families about the medical history of the tissue donor
- Maintaining adequate inventory of study supplies
- Maintaining effective and ongoing communication with sponsor, research participants and supervisor during the course of the study
- Preparing and submitting any modifications to the scientific protocol
- Day-to-day activities of the study including problem solving, communication and protocol management
- Promptly reports any unanticipated problems
- A bachelor’s degree plus at least 2 years of experience in human subject research, tissue donation, professional clinical laboratory work, nursing, paramedic/military medic, or related similar experience, or
- An associate’s degree in a related field plus at least four years of job-related substantive experience in human subject research, tissue donation, professional clinical laboratory work, nursing, paramedic/military medic, or similar related experience.
- In lieu of a degree, 10 years of related experience may be considered.
- Prior experience working in military environments and interacting with service member personnel and their families.
- Ability to speak, read, and write in Spanish.
- Experience in the field of tissue or organ donation.