NATASHA AUGUSTIN
Miami,FL
Summary
Dynamic and dedicated Coordinator with a proven track record of enhancing individual, team, and organizational performance. Demonstrates exceptional multitasking and prioritization skills, thriving in fast-paced environments with minimal supervision. Detail-oriented professional eager to leverage a robust medical background and strong team-building expertise to contribute effectively in deadline-driven settings. Committed to fostering collaborative relationships and driving successful recovery outcomes.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Transplant Coordinator
Buckeye Transplant Services
Buffalo, NY
01.2026 - Current
- Monitored allocation procedures to guarantee compliance with regulatory standards while maintaining accuracy in documentation.
- Analyzed clinical data from donors to facilitate precise matching with recipients, optimizing transplant success rates.
- Coordinated end-to-end organ donation and transplant processes, including donor evaluation, organ recovery, allocation, transport, and recipient coordination
- Served as a key liaison between transplant surgeons, organ procurement organizations, hospital teams, and transplant centers to ensure seamless case execution
- Evaluated donor and recipient clinical data including labs, imaging, serologies, and medical history to support organ suitability and transplant decision-making
- Managed active transplant waitlists, patient status updates, and organ offers in compliance with UNOS and OPTN policies
- Coordinated real-time organ allocation workflows, ensuring accurate matching, prioritization, and timely acceptance of organs
- Facilitated communication of organ offers to transplant centers, responding to clinical questions and ensuring rapid decision-making under strict time constraints
- Documented all allocation, recovery, and transplant activities with precision, ensuring full regulatory and legal compliance
- Managed multidisciplinary coordination for transplant cases, including ICU, OR, surgical teams, and logistics personnel
- Collaborated with bed management, nursing supervisors, and admitting departments to expedite patient placement
- Ensured patients met clinical criteria for admission based on transplant urgency and organ availability
- Coordinated direct admissions from home, dialysis centers, ICU, or referring hospitals
- Communicated admission instructions to patients and families, ensuring clear understanding of pre-surgical expectations
- Coordinated and facilitated admission of transplant patients for evaluation, organ offer, and scheduled transplant procedures
Surgical Technologist II
Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
Hollywood, FL
01.2023 - Current
- Setup operating and surgery rooms by preparing equipment and supplies for upcoming procedures
- Transported patients to and from surgeries to promote timely operating room turnover
- Maintained high infection control standards
- Delivered exemplary assistance and support to surgeons during general, gynecological, orthopedic, neurological, and plastic surgery procedures
- Assisted transplant surgeons during kidney transplant procedures, ensuring efficient and sterile surgical workflow
- Set up operating room with specialized equipment, including perfusion solutions and transplant instrument trays
- Anticipated surgeon needs during critical phases such as vascular anastomosis and organ reperfusion
- Assisted with preparation and handling of donor kidney, ensuring proper sterile technique and preservation protocols
- Verified organ identification, labeling, and documentation prior to implantation
- Maintained strict adherence to aseptic technique to prevent infection and ensure patient safety
- Performed surgical counts (sponges, needles, instruments) in accordance with OR safety standards
- Assisted with patient positioning, draping, and intraoperative setup for optimal surgical access
- Operated and troubleshot surgical equipment, including suction devices, cautery units, and preservation systems
- Collaborated with multidisciplinary teams, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nursing staff, to ensure seamless case flow
- Responded effectively in high-pressure, time-sensitive transplant cases, including on-call and emergent procedures
- Facilitated smooth transitions between surgeries with efficient room turnover times.
Organ Allocation Coordinator II /Administrator on Duty
Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency
Miami, FL
03.2022 - 01.2026
- Managed on-call organ allocation activities, ensuring timely placement of organs in accordance with national policies and clinical urgency
- Coordinated organ offers and placement through UNOS systems, adhering to OPTN allocation guidelines
- Reviewed donor clinical data (labs, imaging, serologies) to support accurate and efficient organ matching
- Initiated and facilitated organ offer calls to transplant centers, providing detailed donor information and responding to clinical inquiries
- Documented all allocation activities in real time, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and regulatory compliance
- Monitored and managed match runs, prioritization, and organ acceptance timelines to minimize cold ischemia time
- Served as the central communication hub between recovery teams, transplant centers, and internal clinical staff during on-call shifts
- Coordinated logistics for organ recovery and transport, including timing, team mobilization, and courier arrangements
- Maintained strict adherence to confidentiality, ethical standards, and federal regulations governing organ allocation
- Participates in 24 hour on call coverage on a rotating AOC schedule
- Coordinates the staff in the operating room for local procurements and abroad (i.e Requiring flight transportation) with clinical recovery and preservation of organs for transplantation, and undertakes extensive communications with transplant center, according to established guidelines
- Responsible for accurately collecting, recording, and maintaining clinical records of donors and recipients as required by the program in accordance with UNOS and CMS standards and requirements
- Ensured seamless handoff communication between shifts to maintain continuity of care and allocation accuracy
- Remained accessible for urgent decision-making, problem-solving, and coordination during nights, weekends, and holidays
Postmortem Brain Recovery Contractor
Harvard Brain Tissue Resource
Belmont, MA
01.2020 - 11.2025
- Coordinated time-sensitive postmortem brain recovery procedures for research and transplantation programs in alignment with donor consent and eligibility criteria
- Facilitated communication between hospitals, coroners/medical examiners, pathology teams, and brain bank organizations to ensure timely recovery windows were met
- Verified donor authorization, consent documentation, and medical suitability for neurological tissue donation
- Ensured strict adherence to postmortem recovery timelines to preserve tissue integrity and research viability
- Performed or assisted with sterile brain recovery procedures under controlled autopsy or surgical conditions
- Maintained aseptic technique and followed standardized neuro-recovery protocols during cranial access and tissue extraction
- Preserved brain tissue using approved fixation, cooling, or cryopreservation methods depending on research requirements
- Accurately labeled, packaged, and documented neurological specimens with full chain-of-custody tracking
- Coordinated transport of recovered brain tissue to designated research facilities or brain banks under temperature-controlled conditions
- Completed detailed documentation including recovery time, postmortem interval, donor identifiers, and tissue condition
- Ensured compliance with regulatory and ethical standards for human tissue research and donation programs, including guidelines from AATB
Organ Allocation & Surgical Recovery Coordinator
Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency
Miami, FL
12.2018 - 03.2022
- Approached families for organ donation
- Maximized performance by monitoring daily activities and mentoring team members
- Safely transported kidneys to local transplant centers under strict time constraints to preserve organ viability
- Coordinated ground and air transport logistics to ensure timely delivery of organs
- Communicated continuously with receiving transplant teams to provide ETA updates and clinical status
- Completed direct handoff of organs to surgical teams, verifying documentation and obtaining required signatures
- Ensured adherence to all safety, regulatory, and documentation standards during transport
- Communicate with local and outside of DSA transplant centers, present donor offer data to transplant coordinator or MD, interpret lab values and notify RN/MD of abnormal values
- Responsible for planning, coordination, and dispatch of all emergent and non-emergent Ambulance transport requests to and from hospital before and after recovery of organs
- Verified, updated and communicated patient history with hospital staff prior to donation approach with Leadership on-call
- Coordinates preservation support for local and Import Kidney cases as well as initiates documentation for preservationist on local and import cases
- Obtain clinical data from DMC re: donor including identifying information, demographics PMH, PSH, serology, biochemical, clinical data and other significant information in order to coordinate transplant operation
- Coordinated end-to-end organ recovery processes for deceased donors, ensuring timely and efficient case progression
- Served as the primary liaison between transplant surgeons, and hospital staff
- Reviewed donor medical records, including labs, imaging, and serologies, to support organ suitability and allocation
- Facilitated real-time communication of organ offers, acceptances, and status updates to transplant centers
- Ensured compliance with regulatory standards set by UNOS and OPTN
- Operate Kidney preservation machine and maintain accurate clinical preservation records while on preservation duty
- Responsible for making necessary call to transplant centers to place kidneys and pancreas, according to UNOS requirements
- Maintain current knowledge and enforce legal requirements of organ donation
- Completed required documentation verification following standard operating procedure
- Coordinated operating room logistics and multidisciplinary surgical teams during organ recovery procedures
- Oversaw organ preservation, including proper flushing, labeling, and sterile packaging in accordance with transplant protocols
- Tracked and documented critical time metrics, including cold ischemia time, to optimize transplant outcomes
- Managed chain-of-custody documentation to ensure accurate and compliant organ transfer
Tissue Recovery Specialist / Recovery Team Lead
Legacy Donor Service Foundation
Miami, FL
07.2007 - 12.2019
- Dissected and recovered tissue grafts using sterile surgical instruments and tissue-specific recovery techniques
- Properly labeled, packaged, and preserved recovered tissue using approved storage media and temperature controls
- Ensured accurate chain-of-custody documentation from donor recovery through processing facility transfer
- Managed cold storage and transport conditions to maintain tissue integrity during transit
- Completed detailed documentation of recovery times, tissue types, and donor identifiers in compliance with regulatory standards
- Maintained compliance with standards set by organizations such as AATB and applicable federal guidelines
- Trained staff on operating room policies and procedures, infection control standards and safety protocols
- Maintained documentation of post-operative instrument reconciliations and protocols for quality care
- Introduced new staff members to training protocols regarding operating room procedures, infection control, safety standards and overall facility policies
- Managed operating room setup by cleaning and sterilizing instruments and surfaces, maintaining supply inventories and organizing surgical tools
- Decontaminated instruments and equipment and properly disposed of contaminated materials
- Serves as the active leader of the Tissue recovery Teams
- Recovered research tissue following Research protocols and Standard Operating Procedures
- Responsible for the ordering, receipt, storage and FIFO stock rotation of recovery supplies
- Ensures compliance with all OSHA, safety and HIPPA protocols
- Schedule monthly cleaning of Recovery Suite(s)
- Performed sterile recovery of human tissues for transplantation, including musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and skin
- Assisted in donor recovery procedures in hospital ORs, morgue settings, and surgical recovery suites under strict aseptic technique
- Evaluated donor suitability based on medical history, serology, and recovery criteria in coordination with clinical teams
- Maintained strict adherence to infection control, universal precautions, and biosafety procedures during all recoveries
Education
Associate of Science - Surgical Technology
Keiser Career College
Miami Lakes, FL05.2007
High School Diploma -
American Academy High School
Miami, FL03.2003
Skills
- Strong verbal communication
- Extremely organized
- Self-motivated
- Team leadership
- Powerful negotiator
- Conflict resolution
- Statistical techniques
- Document control
- Time Management
- Multi Tasking
- Ability to prioritize
- Regulatory compliance
- Strategic planning
- Clerical
- Organization and Time management
- Instrument sterilization
Accomplishments
American Association Of Tissue Banks Certified Tissue Bank Specialist, 10/2017
Certification
- American Association Of Tissue Banks Certified Tissue Bank Specialist, 2017-10
- BLS Certification, 2019-12
Timeline
Transplant Coordinator
Buckeye Transplant Services
01.2026 - Current
Surgical Technologist II
Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
01.2023 - Current
Organ Allocation Coordinator II /Administrator on Duty
Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency
03.2022 - 01.2026
Postmortem Brain Recovery Contractor
Harvard Brain Tissue Resource
01.2020 - 11.2025
Organ Allocation & Surgical Recovery Coordinator
Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency
12.2018 - 03.2022
Tissue Recovery Specialist / Recovery Team Lead
Legacy Donor Service Foundation
07.2007 - 12.2019
Associate of Science - Surgical Technology
Keiser Career College
High School Diploma -
American Academy High School