Tiffany Coco, LCSW-S, CCTSW-MCS

Backstory

By Sue Coyle

In fifth grade, Tiffany Coco ran the advice column in her class newsletter, answering questions about fifth-grade concerns as Dear Coco. She knew even then that her profession would be as a helper, though perhaps not an advice columnist. Coco thought she would be a doctor, but “As I grew older, I learned that you could help people in different ways,’’ she says.

The loss of her mother when Coco was a teenager cemented her path toward service. She sees the experience, including the decision her family made to donate her mother’s organs, as a catalyst for where she is now. “My worst day helped somebody else,” she says. “I wouldn’t be the type of social worker I am now had I not experienced that.”

It was when Coco completed an undergraduate internship in medical social work that she realized what type of helper she wanted to be. After graduation, she took a position working with individuals with brain injuries followed by an internship at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Today, Coco is the Transplant Social Work Supervisor at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, a position that allows her direct service and the opportunity to support other social workers—both of which are very important to her.

Coco credits several mentors throughout her education and career for helping her over the years. “Having people that are truly invested in your professional growth is such a big part (of success), and that’s what I want to give back to my staff and the interns that I take on,” she says.

Coco also has won a number of awards throughout her career, including Social Worker of the Year and Transplant Employee of the Quarter at the Mayo Clinic. She is a board member for the Society of Transplant Social Workers and on the medical advisory board for Help Hope Live. When asked what she is most proud of in her career, however, she points to moments with patients, such as when she accompanied a doctor to deliver the good news about a transplant.

“The day came,” she recalls, “and I got to be the one that said, ‘You’re getting new lungs.’ It was amazing— in the blink of an eye, watching a life change.” That, she says, is why she’s a social worker. “I want to change the world, and if I can’t do that, then I want to change somebody’s world!”