Eversight Orbit: Discover Sharlene Rupp’s journey to changing lives in Arizona

DNA Tissue Recovery Supervisor Sharlene Rupp serves as the eye bank partner liaison between Eversight and DNA. 

With nearly two decades of experience at DNA and 10 years in eye banking, Sharlene is a dedicated leader to the DNA tissue recovery staff, which includes eye, bone, skin, cardiovascular and connective tissues. 

“I have been here for a long time, and my favorite thing about what I do is being able to take someone's worst day ever and bring a little bit of hope to it,” Sharlene said. “We're making difficult situations a little bit easier. They're never going to be easy, but we're able to give hope to those families as well as give sight or mobility to others, depending on what they receive from a tissue gift.” 

She is committed to helping donors in Arizona fulfill their wish of transforming lives, ensuring that all staff are trained, educated on policies and taken care of as individuals. 

“I am familiar with everything from cornea recovery to cornea processing, and I’m the certified eye bank specialist for Donor Network of Arizona,” she said. “I make sure that our policies align with EBAA standards, as well as Eversight standards. With the partnership transition, I incorporated all Eversight processes into DNA and equipped our team and leadership with training and tools needed to ramp up recoveries and make the transition as smooth as possible.” 

Sharlene graduated with a degree in human biology and knew from the very beginning that she wanted to help people. She came across DNA through friends applying for a position and was one of the few who landed a job. 

“I fell in love with it from day one,” Sharlene said. “I was a human bio major, did cadaver dissection, so it was kind of right up my alley. I like that it changes a little bit every day. We get to help different people every day.” 

After graduation, Sharlene planned on going into the medical field with the goal of helping people. At DNA, she found just that. 

“We're able to train people onsite who are interested in anatomy, interested in helping and healing people, and give them a career that facilitates both—their love for anatomy and the body, as well as helping people through the gift of donation,” she said. 

Prior to the partnership, DNA’s eye bank only recovered eye tissue based on their surgical need. They recovered tissue to facilitate the gift of sight to Arizonans domestically and internationally but knew they could have a greater impact. 

“With the partnership with Eversight, we have been able to expand our reach and so we are able to allow more Arizonans to give the gift to sight,” Sharlene said. “We're able to help and heal more people and ensure that anyone who wishes to donate eye tissue have that opportunity in Arizona.” 

When there is a possible donor in Arizona, DNA takes the referral and connects with the family to explain the recovery process and proceed with the gift. Once they have the necessary medical information, DNA technicians evaluate Eversight’s criteria and ensure all are met.  

After communication with Eversight, DNA recovery technicians recover the tissue and ship it to Eversight for evaluation, processing and distribution. 

“Our teams work really well together,” Sharlene said. “We all learned how to navigate this partnership from both ends, and it was great to see all our teams come together for the same purpose.” 

This partnership has allowed more Arizonans to give the gift of sight by giving twice as many people the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to eye donation, in addition to organ and tissue. 

“We really have expanded our reach,” Sharlene said.  “We would recover one or two corneas a day. Now, we're recovering three or four, sometimes five or six.” 

Maximizing the gift of sight in Arizona not only impacts cornea recipients, but it also allows more donors and their families to fulfill their wish of changing lives. 

“It means a lot to our donor families,” she said. “The partnership is beneficial because we work together well and we're helping and healing more lives through cornea donation and transplantation.” 

To Sharlene, eye, organ and tissue donation means expanding the generosity of people and allowing for more lives to be healed and transformed. 

“Working together can expand donation options for everyone,” she said. “The partnerships do matter. They push donation forward, which is the ultimate goal––to make donation happen. To allow donors to donate and to allow recipients to get the gifts that they need and working together, no matter who it is, or how you work together, is important because we're all here for the same purpose.”