From Crisis to Advocacy: Interviewing Jordan Mace

When her husband’s sudden illness led to a dire need for a heart transplant, Jordan Mace, a Director of Customer Success at Braze, found herself entangled in an organ donation and transplant journey. 

The typical process for organ matching, recovery, and transportation involves many transfers of data and more than 70 phone calls. With such a large number of information exchanges, human error can unfortunately happen. At some point in this chaotic relay, an error occurred with the height and weight of her husband or the potential donor, resulting in an unusable organ match. Fortunately, the error was identified  in time for a proper match to later be arranged, but the costs of these mistakes can be extremely serious in most situations. 

With her background in technology, Mace thought of ways to streamline sharing patient data through the journey. Further research led to the founding of Valeos, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to securely collecting patient clinical and outcomes data from pre- to post-transplantation and authorizing access to approved parties.

Valeos aims to aggregate and standardize data in a secure, privacy-protected environment, improving the data used in matching algorithms to reduce human error. In their partnership with Oracle, Valeos is building a comprehensive data sandbox, which will allow other health systems, organ procurement organizations (OPOs), and industry members to better collaborate through secure data.

Motivated by candidates awaiting a transplant, those families who have lost a loved one who heroically chose to donate their organs, and recipients who are given a second chance at life, Mace makes it her goal to ensure that everyone’s stories are heard, that the U.S. ecosystem is improved, and that organ donation and recovery becomes a more efficient process. 

To spread awareness for organ donation, Mace believes increasing visibility and encouraging conversations about it can lead to higher registration rates. She mentions public figures like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, and actress and singer Selena Gomez (all who have received organ transplants) as critical for more people to be aware of the importance organ donation plays in our society.

Mace also shared her excitement over recent advancements within organ donation and transplantation, from xenotransplantation to legislative efforts: the successful transplantation of a pig kidney into a human draws potential for more available organs in the future and the recent bill signed by President Biden aims to reduce the waiting time and thus less death, which the 104,000 waiting list in the United States has proven to have.

Looking ahead, Mace is optimistic about the future of organ donation. She envisions a system where data is at the forefront, driving greater access for high-quality transplants, reduced waitlist times, and improved post-transplant life expectancy and quality of life. She is inspired by the dedication of those working in the field and is determined to make a lasting impact through Valeos.