Riki Graves: A Mother’s Perspective

Meet Riki Graves, a diligent business development specialist and a loving mother of two. As a Business Development Specialist for the JC Walter Junior Transplant Center, she focuses heavily on marketing and working with other transplant centers. Riki acts as a physical liaison between the hepatologist, a liver doctor, and the patients. 

Riki is a very active advocate of organ donation. When Riki’s daughter was just 17 days old, she received a heart transplant, making her the youngest heart transplant recipient ever at Texas Children's Hospital. Since then, Riki has gone on to work with various transplant organizations, such as participating in an event for the American Liver Foundation. 

Aside from volunteering, Riki tries to contribute to the organ donation field in any way she can. She often advocates for patients who are waiting for a transplant and tries to help them by providing resources and information. Riki has contacts in transplantation throughout her community and provides patients with valuable information like what to expect during their surgery. Riki always expresses how important organ donation is to her.  She was a registered organ donor before her daughter was born and everyone in her family is as well. 

Riki Graves believes organ donation is a beautiful thing overall because it helps people to live long lives and it is a great gift to give back to the community— it saved the life of her daughter! There are so many ill patients spending their time in hospitals waiting for an organ. Graves believes that it’s not only important for high schoolers to be informed about organ donations, but parents as well. 

Riki Graves continues to be a strong advocate for organ donation to this day, choosing to volunteer this year with her daughter as a participant at the Transplant Games of America in San Diego.