Prior to assuming the Chief Executive role at Donor Network West, Whaley held leadership and clinical roles in three other OPOs, achieving similar results. Whaley served as Chief Operating Officer of LifeShare of Oklahoma, essentially doubling the number of organ donors early on in her five-year tenure. Before her arrival at LifeShare, Whaley held the role of Managing Director of Clinical Operations at LifeGift in Houston, TX, where she 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.
A committed advocate for donation, Whaley has served in multiple capacities on several donation and transplantation related national boards and committees, including serving as President of the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT), being appointed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to serve as a faculty member for the National Learning Congress (NLC) in 2012 and most recently, appointed to serve on the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) Advisory Council on Transplantation (ACOT).
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. Whaley is dually certified in organ and tissue recovery through ABTC and the AATB, respectively.