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Teresa J. Shafer, RN, MSN, CPTC
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Teresa Shafer began her career in transplantation in 1985, launching a hospital-based organ procurement organization at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, termed Tarrant County Organ Donor Program. Before that, she served in various staff and leadership positions in critical care nursing in Los Angeles, California, Champaign, Illinois, and Fort Worth, Texas. Shafer received her bachelor of science in 1977 from Indiana State University and her master of science degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980, both degrees in nursing; both cum laude.
Shafer served as president of the North American Transplant Coordinators Organization (NATATCO) from 1993 to 1994; board member for the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOSOS) from 1993-1994; and committee member on numerous UNOS and Association of Organ Procurement Organization (AOPO ) committees, and was a founding member of the International Transplant Coordinator's Society (ITITCS). From 2003 to 2005, Shafer served as national co-chair of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative, a national effort to increase organ donation and save the lives of thousands of additional transplant patients.
Shafer has received numerous local, regional and national awards. A prolific author, she has conducted research, managed several grants, written more than 60 articles, book chapters and abstracts, and is the associate editor of Progress in Transplantation. Shafer was co-editor for NATATCO's first textbook, A Clinician's Guide to Donation and Transplantation, and won the J. Kent Trinkle Texas Transplantation Society Best Abstract award in 1997, 2003 and 2005.
