NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Board Member / Retired Senior Partner at Latham & Watkins LLP / Atherton, CA
Alan Mendelson is widely recognized as one of the most respected and experienced lawyers in the life sciences industry helping companies grow through every stage of the business life cycle. Mr. Mendelson served as a Senior Partner of Latham & Watkins LLP for over 20 years, recently retiring from the partnership in December 2020.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Mendelson served as outside counsel to Amgen, completing a joint venture with Kirin Brewery and a partnership agreement with Johnson & Johnson with respect to a new drug treatment for kidney patients. He later served as Secretary and Acting General Counsel at Amgen. He also experienced firsthand the effects kidney failure can have on people watching his friends suffer from kidney failure and later became President of NKF's then Northern California affiliate for three years, served on the local Board of Directors for 12 years and has supported NKF events in the Bay Area for more than 35 years. Given his life sciences business acumen, Mr. Mendelson is an integral and active member of the life sciences academic, research, and business communities and serves on numerous distinguished boards.
Through his work with companies that developed drug treatments for kidney patients, friends suffering from kidney failure, and a local volunteer role for NKF, Mendelson learned about the burden kidney disease takes on patients and their families and committed to helping change that.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Registered Dietitian
Alison Steiber is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, PhD, RDN, Chief Science Officer at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics who began her career in renal nutrition over 25 years ago in Lincoln, NE at Bryan Memorial Hospital. She leads a 13-person team in the areas of research, international, and scientific affairs who are responsible for research efforts, systemic reviews, position statements, nutrition related research, evidenced-based nutrition practice guidelines and the Dietitian Outcomes Registry. She also oversees the Academy's international efforts, standardized language development and resources, and the research fellowship program. Steiber completed her Dietetic Internship and received her Master of Science in Dietetics at the University of Kansas Medical Center and her Doctorate in Human Nutrition from Michigan State University.
Dr. Steiber is passionate about the impact that nutrition can have on the health outcomes of patients with kidney disease, and she's eager to share her decades of expertise in renal nutrition by working with the NKF board and all those affected by kidney disease.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Controller
- Vice President, Finance
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
- Member of the Board
- NKF Board Member
Anne Davidson Barr's expertise is in leading the utilization of technology to achieve strategic business and operational goals. She joined the National Kidney Foundation Board in 2019 and has served on the Northern California NKF Board since 2013, including three years as Board Chair. Recently, as Chief Information Officer for Sutter Health Bay Area and earlier as Regional Information Officer for Kaiser Permanente in Northern and Southern California, Barr oversaw the transition to Electronic Health Records where she also had the opportunity to work with Kidney Transplant Centers. Currently, Barr consults on healthcare technology and Digital transformation.
As an NKF Board Member, Anne has recruited several Corporate Chairs to sponsor the Kidney walks over the years. In Northern California, she supported the implementation of governance changes, leadership changes while engaging Board Members actively in strategy and planning sessions. Her engagement with NKF began as part of her passion for the Kidney Transplant Centers she supported and became more personal when a close friend became a kidney donor.
Her engagement with NKF began as part of her passion for the Kidney Transplant Centers she supports, but it became more personal when a close friend became a kidney donor.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Afiniti President of Customer Operations, Is a Board
- Chairman / President of Customer Operations
Anthony E. Tuggle, Afiniti President of Customer Operations, is a Board Member of the National Kidney Foundation and of NKF Serving Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Tuggle is responsible for expanding global contact center operations, accelerating business development, overseeing product deployment and engaging clients to generate value for enterprises, customers and employees. Prior to joining Afiniti, Tuggle served as Vice President - Customer Care, Sales and Service Centers at AT&T where he led more than 30,000 sales leaders and has built a culture that fosters a passion for winning. He models a "find-a-way" mindset in his approach to leadership and inspires his team to embrace the importance of agility. Tuggle is the acclaimed author of I'm Better Not Bitter: My Personal Journey - Kidney Transplant Recipient's Story of Winning in Business & Life and Moving Forward, which shares how he has overcome obstacles, is self-motivated, and creates a work culture of success.
Notably, Tuggle led efforts in his local community as the 2018-2020 Chairman of the Atlanta Kidney Walk, which raised more than $500,000 for NKF. He also has partnered with AT&T to raise more than $200,000 to date. A 22-year kidney transplant recipient, Tuggle is committed to working with NKF towards kidney disease prevention efforts.
He is a 22-year kidney transplant recipient. His commitment to working with NKF toward kidney disease prevention efforts and raised more than $200,000 with AT&T, where he was Vice President of Customer Care, Sales and Service Centers.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
Mr. Pasquarella is a living kidney donor and donated his kidney to his brother. His goal at NKF is to continue growth in advancing the public's awareness of and treatment methods aimed at preventing kidney disease and reducing its impact.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
- FNKF
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Mayor / Irmo, SC
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
Bernard Jaar is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (part-time) in the Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with Joint Appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also an Associate Faculty member of the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical research at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He holds a Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, of the American Society of Nephrology and of the National Kidney Foundation. He serves on the Editorial Board of several nephrology journals and has authored or coauthored over 120 peer reviewed manuscripts. He is the immediate past Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland; he is Co-Chair of the National Kidney Foundation Education Committee and a member of the Exam Writing Committee of the American Board of Internal Medicine Sub-Specialty in Nephrology. He is Chair of the State of Maryland Commission on Kidney Disease. In addition, he is a busy practicing nephrologist with the Nephrology Center of Maryland.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Local Staff Member
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- Member of the Board
- Board Member / Director, Division of Pediatric Nephrology / Director, Dialysis and Transplantation
- Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine
Bradley A. Warady, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; and Director, Division of Nephrology/Dialysis and Transplantation at Children's Mercy Kansas City. In addition to his role as a clinician, Dr. Warady is internationally recognized as a writer and researcher in the field of pediatric nephrology, currently serving as senior editor of the textbook Pediatric Dialysis and principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health-funded Chronic Kidney Disease in Children study and a variety of other studies pertaining to pediatric kidney care.
Job Titles:
- Regional Vice President, Mid - Atlantic
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Member of the Local Staff and Advisory Board
Dr. Thakar received his medical degree from the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College, University of Pune, India in 1995. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Bridgeport Hospital, Yale New Haven Health in Bridgeport, CT and a Nephrology fellowship at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Thakar currently serves as the Director, Division of Nephrology, Kidney C.A.R.E (Clinical Advancement, Research & Education) Program at the University of Cincinnati in OH and Chief of Renal Section at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center. Dr. Thakar is an experienced educator, having joined the University of Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor in 2004 and was promoted to Professor of Medicine with Tenure in 2014. He is a nationally recognized for his research related to acute kidney injury and progression of chronic kidney disease. His work has been published in top-tiered peer-reviewed journals, and he has received funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, NIH and other national foundations. Additionally, he completed an executive education program at Harvard Business School in Managing Healthcare Delivery. He has vast leadership experience in complex healthcare environments, including federal, non-profit, and private sectors.
Job Titles:
- Vice President Preconstruction
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
Clarissa Diamantidis is an Assistant Professor in the Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Nephrology at Duke University and a nephrologist at Durham VA Medical center. Her research focuses on promoting patient engagement in chronic kidney disease (CKD) care through the use of tailored, low literacy interventions delivered via platforms such as mobile phones, websites, and telehealth. Awareness of CKD is remarkably low among both at-risk patients and the providers who care for them, and using novel health tools may be a means to eliminate information barriers and mitigate the disparate health outcomes noted among high-risk individuals such as ethnic and racial minorities who face a disproportionately high risk of adverse kidney outcomes. Current projects include evaluation of the association of e-literacy with patient safety risk in the CRIC (PI), and a study looking at a multifactorial intervention to slow progression of diabetic kidney disease (co-PI). Dr. Diamantidis is a Fellow of the National Kidney Foundation and a member of the American Society of Nephrology and Network of Minority Research Investigators (NMRI).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Development Assistant
- Member of the Local Staff and Advisory Board
Dr. Weiner is a nephrologist and nephrology clinical researcher with interests in dialysis, cardiovascular disease in kidney disease, and decision-making in advanced kidney disease. He is the national Medical Director of Clinical Research for Dialysis Clinic, Inc., a national not-for-profit dialysis provider. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Kidney Medicine, an official journal of the National Kidney Foundation, and the Primer on Kidney Diseases. He is the recipient of the American Society of Nephrology Midcareer Distinguished Leader Award in 2019 and has been active in kidney disease policy on a national level, including as the prior chair of the American Society of Nephrology Quality Committee.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
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- Board Member / Senior Vice President and Senior Research Fellow at UnitedHealth Group 's OptumLabs
David has focused on translating data into intelligence and the re-design of clinical service to realize business opportunity. After clinical and research training at the Mayo Clinic, David spent two decades in clinical practice, research, and leadership. Innovation efforts focused on the application of electronic tools to drive high-value service models and using mobile to support the patient experience and create shared expectations for patients and providers. After Mayo Clinic, he became the Chief Clinical Officer at Jiahui Health in Shanghai, China overseeing the development and opening of an integrated, multisite medical system.
Dr. Cook's work has included presentations at the World Economic Forum, the National Press Club, the American College of Health Care Executives, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the National Health Service-UK, and media exposure with the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and the Advisory Board.
For two decades during his ICU practice, David saw firsthand the devastating impact kidney disease and end stage renal failure have on patients and their families. He understands the challenges that families face as he also lost his father in 2019 to kidney disease.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
Deborah Adey has been a nephrologist with the University of California San Francisco Kidney Transplant Service since July 1997, after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSF Medical Center. She has a particular interest in treating kidney transplant patients with recurrent focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS). Her research in this area has addressed factors that contribute to long term allograft loss and interventions aimed at lowering high antibody levels in patients awaiting kidney transplant. Dr. Adey attended medical school at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. She completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Vermont in Burlington, and her first two years of nephrology fellowship were completed at the University of Vermont, where she studied protein metabolism in kidney failure. At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., she was further trained in transplantation. As part of her teaching activities, Dr. Adey runs the UCSF Nephrology Fellows lecture series and is director of the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship at UCSF.
Job Titles:
- Regional Vice President, Northeast
Devika Nair MD MSCI completed a clinical and research fellowship in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension in 2019, during which time she earned a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation and served as Chief Nephrology Fellow. Dr. Nair cares deeply about improving the person centeredness of care for the aging chronic kidney disease (CKD) population and better engaging patients with limited social and economic resources as partners in research. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods to identify the clinical implications of cognitive impairment in older adults with CKD. Her long-term goal is to establish empiric support for an integrated model of collaborative care delivery to improve self-care and quality of life in this patient population. Dr. Nair also facilitates a serious illness communication skills elective for nephrology trainees in partnership with her palliative care colleagues. She is currently supported by an AHRQ-PCORI-funded K12, is a Fellow of the National Kidney Foundation, a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. She is a mentee of Dr. Kerri Cavanaugh, also on this committee.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Medical Director of Kidney Transplant / Medical University of SC
Job Titles:
- Director of the Nutrition Research Network
Dr. Yakes Jimenez is the Director of the Nutrition Research Network (NRN) for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and a Research Associate Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. She has a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and a master's degree in public health nutrition from Case Western Reserve University, and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Davis. In her role as the Director of the NRN, she is currently overseeing research studies examining underutilization of Medicare medical nutrition therapy benefits for patients with non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease, and implementation of evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines for chronic kidney disease.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Learning Strategies / Primary Care Programs
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Principal / Deloitte Consulting LLP
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Public Policy
Dr. Lin is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He is a board-certified nephrologist and health services researcher with a focus on economic policies pertaining to kidney diseases. His main research focus is in cost-effectiveness and assessing the impact of financial incentives on patient outcomes. Currently, he is studying the economic and social determinants of home dialysis drop-out and the appropriateness of 30-day rehospitalizations in patients receiving dialysis. He also has interests in the impact of Medicare policies on the delivery of healthcare by providers and has studied how to optimize chronic disease management, including an investigation on the cost-effectiveness of multi-disciplinary care programs in chronic kidney disease. Recently, he helped the NKF refine its CKD Intercept payment model. He also served as moderator for two of the clinical subcommittees convened by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop episodes of care for the Quality Payment Program ("Acute Kidney Injury Requiring New Inpatient Dialysis" and "Hemodialysis Access Creation"). Eugene received a BS in biology (minor in mathematics) from Stanford University, an MD from Baylor College of Medicine, and completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his fellowship training at Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Rohadfox Construction Control Services
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Department of Biostatistics
Dr. Feldman is the Chair of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (DBEI), the George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, a Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Medicine (Renal Electrolyte and Hypertension Division), and Medicine in Pediatrics, and the Director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB). Dr. Feldman earned his MD in 1982 from Boston University before completing a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He subsequently completed his fellowship training in nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania where he also trained in Clinical Epidemiology. His work has also been recognized through membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Epidemiological Society. He is President of the American College of Epidemiology. Dr. Feldman is also currently the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases after serving as past inaugural Deputy Editor of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and past Associate Editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Among his numerous national leadership roles, Dr. Feldman leads NIH's Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study (CRIC), the major national research effort making fundamental insights into the epidemiology, management, and outcomes of chronic kidney disease. Under his leadership, the CRIC Study has discovered numerous findings with great promise to advance the development of novel therapies to reduce morbidity in this population worldwide. Dr. Feldman also leads NIDDK's Coordinating Center of its Chronic Kidney Disease Biomarkers Consortium. He is also the director of multiple NIH-funded institutional training grants in the clinical epidemiology of kidney disease, cancer, and neurological disorders. Dr. Feldman's published scholarship of more than 200 research publications has appeared in many leading biomedical journals.
Job Titles:
- Immediate past President / Professor of Public Health Sciences and Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Dr. Kramer received her M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine. After completing a nephrology fellowship at Harvard University Medical School in 2002, Dr. Kramer was jointly appointed to the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Department of Public Health Sciences at the Loyola University Medical Center. She became co-director (Dr. Durazo) of the Clinical Research Methods and Epidemiology Program in 2005, developing several courses for the program, and later was the Program Director for the MPH Program in 2009-2013. Dr. Kramer is currently an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences and Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. Her research interests include the intersection between nutrition, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. She is the immediate past President of NKF, as well as Vice-Chair of NKF KDOQI Controversies and Commentaries. In 2016, Dr. Kramer was awarded the Garabed Eknoyan award from the National Kidney Foundation.
Holly Kramer, M.D., MPH, is a practicing nephrologist who conducts research connecting nutrition and kidney health. Her connection to the National Kidney Foundation was inspired by her mom, who was a dialysis nurse and helped create some of the first dialysis units in Northwest Indiana.
Dr. Kramer finds being on the NKF Board important, because it is the largest, patient-centered organization focusing on kidney disease. Her long-term goal is to increase national funding for kidney disease research and to heighten awareness about chronic kidney disease.
Her connection to kidney disease was inspired by her mother, a dialysis nurse who helped create some of the first dialysis units in Northwest Indiana. Dr. Kramer's long-term goal is to increase national funding for kidney disease research.
Job Titles:
- Senior Community Outreach Manager
- Senior Manager, Community Outreach
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Board Member / Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at Abbott / Chicago, IL
- Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at Abbott
Hubert L. Allen is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at Abbott where he leads a diverse global team of over 250 lawyers that interact with legal systems in more than 100 countries to support Abbott business all around the world. Since joining Abbott in 2006, he has held numerous positions within Abbott's legal department, including Divisional Vice President and Associate General Counsel for the Pharmaceutical Products Group, Section Head in Abbott Nutrition, and Division Counsel. Prior to joining Abbott, he was the assistant general counsel for McKesson Corporation. Allen holds a bachelor's degree from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, a master's degree in politics from Princeton University and a juris doctorate from Yale Law School.
Allen suffered from acute kidney failure due to Rhabdomyolisis brought on by a campylobacter infection from food. He learned of NKF through patient educational content while preparing for dialysis. Fortunately, the disease was caught in its early stages, so he only had a few months of dialysis before regaining full kidney function.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Corporate Development
James Simon is a practicing nephrologist at Cleveland Clinic and Assistant Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He is Program Director of Nephrology Fellowship and Head of the Glomerular Diseases Clinic within the Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, and Medical Director of the Anemia Management Clinic. His education interests focus on glomerulonephritis, renal artery stenosis, Alport syndrome, atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, and anemia management. Dr. Simon is site principal investigator of a prospective study looking at the impact of urine microscopy on diagnosis and therapy in AKI; the Membranous Nephropathy Trial Of Rituximab (MENTOR): A Multi-Center Randomized Controlled Trial of Rituximab Versus Cyclosporine in the Treatment of Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy (IMN); and the ATHENA Alport Syndrome Observational Study, which is looking at disease progression, standard of care and biomarkers in Alport syndrome patients. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology, and a member of the National Kidney Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Physician at the University of Pittsburgh
Jane Schell is a nephrologist and palliative care physician at the University of Pittsburgh. Her clinical and research interests focus on provider-patient communication and the implementation of palliative care into kidney disease care. Dr. Schell earned a Masters in Health Sciences and conducted a qualitative study examining communication barriers between nephrologists and elderly patients with advanced kidney disease. Her current research and education efforts focus on nephrology communication curriculum development and implementation. NephroTalk is a communication skills workshop for nephrology fellows to discuss treatment decision-making and end of life care in patients with kidney disease. NephroTalk curriculum has been published and presented in both research forums and educational demonstrations. Dr. Schell is an active NKF member, having served on the Program Committee for the NKF Spring Clinical Meetings.
Job Titles:
- Transportation Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Human Resources
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- Vice President, Program Development
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- National Staff Member
- Senior Vice President, Scientific Operations
Job Titles:
- Member of the Local Staff and Advisory Board
- Community Outreach Director
John Gerzema is a pioneer in the use of data to identify social change and help companies anticipate and adapt to new trends and demands. An author, strategist, speaker and consultant, his various books have appeared on the best seller lists of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fast Company, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Business Week, The WEEK Magazine and many others. A frequent analyst on television and radio John's TED talks have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. He has written for publications like Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, WIRED, Forbes and McKinsey Voices on Society. John's writing was included among "The Fifty Classic Management Articles of The Decade" by Strategy & Business, and his research has been presented at The World Economic Forum and cited in publications like The Journal of Consumer Psychology and Marketing Management textbook.
A Fellow with The Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College and an advocate for the rights of women and girls, John's latest book, co-authored with Pulitzer-Prize winner Michael D'Antonio--The Athena Doctrine: How Women (And The Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future, explores the rise of feminine skills and competencies and their impact on leadership, policy and innovation. Tom Peters says of John, "The Athena Doctrine is a powerful book. Extraordinary research. Great storytelling. A message both timely and of monumental importance."
John is a board advisor to several NGO's including University of The People, The Rainforest Alliance and The United Nations Foundation's Girl Up Campaign. (Proceeds of his book, The Athena Doctrine support this program). In 2014 he was named to "The Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business", and "Must-Follow Marketing Minds on Twitter" by Forbes Magazine.
With a Master's in Integrated Marketing Communications from The Medill School of Journalism, John began his career at Campbell-Mithun and Fallon advertising in Minneapolis, before being named Global Chief Insights Officer for Young & Rubicam Group and Chairman and CEO of Y&R's BAV Consulting.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- MHS
John Sperati is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he serves as Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. He is a member of the National Kidney Foundation Education Committee, is on the editorial board of Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, and serves on the Nephrology Self-Assessment Committee of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Sperati's clinical interests are in secondary and resistant hypertension, atypical HUS, nephrotic syndrome, and chronic kidney disease education. He oversees the aHUS program at Johns Hopkins, and he is the site principal investigator for multiple clinical studies at Hopkins, including CureGN- an NIH sponsored multi-center study of glomerular disease, as well as the Global aHUS Registry.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer
- National Staff Member
Job Titles:
- President & CEO / Rohadfox Construction Control Services Corporation
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Marketing, Communications / Public Affairs
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- Director of Media Relations
- Media Inquiries
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Digital Marketing
Dr. Liu is Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia in the Divisions of Nephrology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Her current research areas of interest focus on the predictive and pathogenic role of biomarkers for both acute and chronic disease states. She has served as an associate editor for the Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease and NephSAP, and also served on the editorial board for the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. She has been actively involved with National Kidney Foundation, including serving on the Program Committee for the Spring Clinical Meetings and the workgroup for the KDOQI Guideline Commentary for the KDIGO AKI Clinical Practice Guidelines.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Medicine
Kelly Beers is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Albany Medical College and an attending nephrologist at Albany Medical Center. Dr. Beers is the director of medical student education in nephrology at Albany Medical College and is actively involved in resident and fellow training. Her clinical and research interests are in pregnancy related kidney disease and long term management of chronic kidney disease, including patient education. Dr. Beers is a member of the National Kidney Foundation Education Committee and Continuing Medical Education Review Committee.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Medicine
- MHS
Kerri Cavanaugh is an Associate Professor of Medicine within the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is also a nephrologist with the Tennessee Valley Health System Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Cavanaugh's research interests center around identifying factors influencing how patients learn about complex chronic disease and the translation of health information into effective self-care behaviors. This includes studying patient-related, provider-related and also patient-provider communication variables. She has demonstrated the risk related to limited health literacy and deficits in disease-specific knowledge among patients with moderate to advanced kidney disease, as well as developing and testing multi-level interventions to improve care. Dr. Cavanaugh developed and made freely available novel valid measures to assess kidney knowledge, self-efficacy of self-care in kidney disease and self-management behaviors. These activities have been funded by the NIH, the American Society of Nephrology, and the National Kidney Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer
- National Staff Member
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- Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University
Khaled Abdel-Kader is an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University and an attending nephrologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Tennessee Valley Health System Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Abdel-Kader's research interests include quality of life in chronic kidney disease (CKD), quality of care of non-dialysis dependent CKD, and the use of health information technology to improve CKD care. His prior work includes characterizing individualized quality of life in CKD, examining symptom burdens in advanced non-dialysis dependent CKD and end-stage renal disease, and examining systematic interventions to improve CKD care delivery. Dr. Abdel-Kader is a member of the American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation. He is an ad hoc reviewer for several journals including the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation, Journal of Hypertension, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Abdel-Kader has received federal and foundational grants to fund his research including a K23 career development award and a Norman S. Coplon grant. His publications have included manuscripts in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and the Journal of Hypertension. Dr. Abdel-Kader is a member of the Vanderbilt Center for Kidney Disease (VCKD).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- FNKF - Chair
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- Member of the Local Staff and Advisory Board
- Senior Development Manager
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- Vice Chair, Clinical Affairs & Faculty Development / Chief of Nephrology, Hypertension & Transplant Medicine
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- Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine
Laura Plantinga is an epidemiologist and Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine, Divisions of General Medicine & Geriatrics and Renal Medicine. Her research has focused primarily on improving quality of care in patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, and she has interests in equity of care for underserved populations, including minority and poor patients, patients with lupus, and older patients. Her current projects primarily focus on using geriatric assessment to improve the patient-centeredness of chronic kidney disease care for patients of all ages. Dr. Plantinga is currently Deputy Section Editor, BMC Nephrology, and an Editorial Board Member at American Journal of Kidney Diseases. She is a member of the American Society of Nephrology, American Geriatrics Society, American College of Rheumatology, AcademyHealth, and the National Kidney Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Development Manager
- Local Staff Member
Leah Foster Smith received her BSN & MSN-FNP from University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1996 & 2001, respectively. She joined Metrolina Nephrology Associates, based in Charlotte, NC, in 2001 as an ANCC Board-certified FNP. Leah was promoted to Director of Advanced Practitioners in 2007 and now supervises Supervising the largest group of nephrology APs in the US with a total of 30 Nephrology Advanced Practitioners. She is also an AP practice consultant with Clear Edge Medical Management assisting multiple nephrology practice in the utilization of nephrology APs, AP-led CKD clinics, focused dialysis rounding models and AP leadership in nephrology practice settings. Leah is also the creator and chair of formalized CKD program managing over 22,000 CKD patients with quality data showing 35% reduction in CVC start rates on patients transitioning to dialysis when APs are involved in care along with a development of a formalized new nephrology AP training program that includes both clinical and didactic courses assisting new nephrology APs integrate into nephrology practice settings including CKD, outpatient dialysis and acute nephrology care settings. Leah is now owner and Chief Education Officer in Interactive Nephrology providing educational support for nephrology practices and APs across the country. She also serves as practice lead in the legacy Charlotte ESCO with Fresenius Health Partner.
Leah currently serves in many national nephrology organizations at local, state and national levels. Leah is involved with NKF with her current role as Chair of the National Council of APs and member of the NC Medical Advisory Board. In addition to her volunteer work with NKF, she has been involved with ANNA, RPA, and the NNCC.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Honorary Board
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- Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine
Dr. Inker is an Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM), an attending physician in the William B. Schwartz, MD Division of Nephrology at Tufts Medical Center (TMC), and scientist at the US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University. Dr. Inker's primary research interests are in kidney function measurement and estimation, alternative endpoints for clinical trials of kidney disease progression, and epidemiology and outcomes related to CKD. Dr. Inker is an investigator on several trials of kidney disease progression. Dr Inker has worked with NKF leadership on improving CKD awareness, including revising the ICD codes related to kidney disease in the United States. Dr. Inker was co-chair of the Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI) committee on the CKD Guidelines, which wrote a commentary on the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) CKD 2012 guidelines. Dr. Inker is the Director of the Kidney and Blood Pressure Center, the Kidney Function Evaluation Center, and for Quality Improvement for the Division of Nephrology at Tufts Medical Center.
Job Titles:
- Director, Patient Services and Administration
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- COO
- Member of the Board
- President
- Vice Chair of the Board of Directors
- Founding Member of Attain
Manish is a kidney transplant recipient. A founding member of Attain, Manish Agarwal serves as the company's COO and president of the Federal Services division. Mr. Agarwal serves as vice chair of Attain's Board of Directors and brings to Attain more than 25 years of success in the consulting and technology fields. He has been a top contributor and advisor to diverse government and commercial clients around the world, and he has held a variety of leadership roles in areas related to transformational change, growing new business and solutions, and ensuring extraordinary customer experiences.
Mr. Agarwal has proven experience in global business development, strategic and operational planning, and overall P&L Management across countries. He is also well versed in creating and managing trusted relationships with clients and strategic partners. He operates on the forefront of progress, bringing innovative solutions to address clients' business priorities and challenges. Mr. Agarwal is well regarded for his leadership and delivery of initiatives, including the creation of a cancer research framework, telehealth and telemedicine applications for our veterans, and complex analytics for enforcement of financial regulations.
Prior to joining Attain, Mr. Agarwal led a business intelligence software startup and its successful divestiture with a positive return to shareholders. Previously, he was a vice president and managing partner at Unisys Corporation, responsible for leading its Asia Pacific business unit and returning it to profitable revenue growth. Mr. Agarwal also was a partner at KPMG Consulting, where he advised and implemented large strategic initiatives for public sector clients.
He is a kidney transplant recipient. He has turned his passion of finding a cure for kidney disease by serving as the Chair of the Board for the National Capital Area.
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- Local Staff Member
- Senior Community Outreach Manager - 203.623.0165
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- Vice President and Director / Mergers & Acquisitions
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- Division Chief of Nephrology at the Children 's National Hospital
Dr. Moxey-Mims is the Division Chief of Nephrology at the Children's National Hospital. Prior to that, she served as deputy director for clinical science in the Division of Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. There she oversaw a portfolio of research including trials for kidney disease and genitourinary dysfunction in adults and children, and director of the pediatric nephrology program. In addition, she managed the division's small business grants for kidney research.
Dr. Moxey-Mims' focus at Children's National is on clinical research to improve the care of children with kidney disease, and as a tool to educate trainees. She received an undergraduate degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a medical degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She completed a pediatric residency and clinical pediatric nephrology training at Children's National, followed by a research fellowship at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH. She is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric nephrology. Dr. Moxey-Mims is a member of several national committees and has more than 90 scientific publications, including peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
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- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Board Member / Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation
- Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute
Matthew Cooper, M.D., is the Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute and Professor of Surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Cooper is a decorated kidney transplant surgeon with 19 years of experience. He has directed three of the largest kidney transplant programs in the United States.
Dr. Cooper's work with the National Kidney Foundation is centered around improving the lives of people with chronic kidney disease and supporting the need for organ transplantation for those with end stage renal disease. "I believe my partnership with NKF provides a real opportunity to make significant changes to bring more people the gift of life, as there is a demonstrable, real investment in actions beyond words and a leadership that is committed to the mission," Dr. Cooper said. His goal is to help NKF increase kidney transplant opportunities. He hopes to accomplish this by supporting NKF efforts to encourage more individuals to become living donors and remove barriers that result in the discarding of deceased donor organs that might have been transplanted.
Dr. Cooper has been kidney transplant surgeon for 19 years. His goal is to help NKF increase kidney transplant opportunities. He supports NKF's efforts to encourage more individuals to become living donors and decrease the number of discarded of deceased donor organs that might otherwise have been transplanted.
Job Titles:
- Division President
- Local Staff Member
- Member of the Local Staff and Advisory Board
- Senior Vice President, Development
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- Member of the Board of Directors
- Investment Operations Program Manager / South Carolina Financial Solutions, LLC
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- Director of Development
- Local Staff Member
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- Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Michael Choi is associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and served as nephrology fellowship director from 1996-2009. Dr. Choi is trained in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry after graduating from the Yale University, and received his Postdoctoral from the Penn Center of Molecular Studies of Kidney Disease, followed by his fellowship training at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. His clinical interests are primary glomerular diseases and nephrolithiasis. Dr. Choi is the co-editor of the Oxford Manual of Nephrology, Deputy Editor of Advances in Chronic Kidney Diseases, and served as chair of the NKF Spring 2011 Spring Clinical Meetings. He previously served as education chair of the NKF Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) and founded the NKF education committee in 2015.
Job Titles:
- CFE, CFF, ABV
- Managing Partner at Clarus Partners
Mike J. Stevenson is the managing partner at Clarus Partners, a full-service accounting, tax and consulting firm in Columbus, OH, with more than 50 associates. Clarus' clients include small $1 million companies to large multinationals. Prior to Clarus, Stevenson was Vice President - Finance and Treasurer at Abercrombie & Fitch for 12 years.
Stevenson received a kidney from his brother, Jim, in 1996 after being diagnosed with glomerulonephritis and has been a champion of trying to raise awareness about chronic kidney disease and ultimately trying to find a cure. In addition to serving on the national Board for the National Kidney Foundation, Stevenson is a Board member for NKF Serving Central Ohio.
He received a kidney from his brother and his goal is to raise awareness about chronic kidney disease and ultimately find a cure.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
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- Member of the Honorary Board
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- Professor of Medicine at Wake Forest University
Dr. Rocco is Professor of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He received his MD degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and also served his Internal Medicine residency at Vanderbilt. He completed a nephrology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and received a master's degree in epidemiology at Wake Forest University. He has been on the faculty of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine since 1991 and currently holds the Vardaman M. Buckalew Jr. Chair in Nephrology. He has more than 100 manuscripts and book chapters in the areas of hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, nutrition, chronic renal failure and epidemiology. He has served as the clinical center Principal Investigator at Wake Forest for several NIH trials, including the HEMO Study, the Acute Renal Failure Trial Network (ATN), the Dialysis Access Consortium (DAC) and the Frequent Hemodialysis Network (FHN). In the HEMO Study he served as the Chair of the Nutrition committee and the Vice-Chair of the Outcomes Committee. In the FHN Trial, he is the Clinical Core Consortium PI for the Nocturnal Trial and the Chair of the Outcomes Committee. Dr. Rocco is currently the Chair of the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI); he served as the Vice-Chair for KDOQI from 2003 - 2007 and was the vice-chair for the NKF KDOQI Hypertension Work Group.
Michelle Estrella is an Associate Professor and practicing nephrologist in the Division of Nephrology at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco. She is also a Core Faculty member in the Kidney Health Research Collaborative and holds an adjunct appointment within the Division of Nephrology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She earned a Master of Health Science degree in Clinical Investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Michelle was initially attracted to the field of nephrology in medical school due to the kidneys' elegant physiology and later by the complex nature of kidney diseases and clinical and research needs in the field. She has had a long-standing interest in education, particularly in CKD education and clinical research training. Her clinical and research interests include chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury, particularly among minority and HIV-infected individuals.
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- Managing Director / Quest Group Search LLC
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- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
Dr. Grams is a nephrologist and Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Dr. Grams holds academic degrees from Yale, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins University. She completed an internal medicine residency at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University and a nephrology fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Grams is Director of Nephrology Initiatives for the Chronic Kidney Disease Prognosis Consortium, an 11-million participant, global consortium, and she also maintains active research programs in the metabolomics and genomics of kidney disease as well as drug safety in chronic kidney disease.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Chief of Medicine at the Priscilla Chan
Dr. Powe is the Chief of Medicine at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the Constance B. Wofsy Distinguished Professor and Vice-Chair of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco where he serves as administrative leader of the Department of Medicine.
Dr. Powe's work unites Medicine and Public Health. His landmark investigations of outcomes in chronic kidney disease, particularly on health disparities, have influenced clinical practice and policy. He led the Choices for Healthy Outcomes in Caring for ESRD (CHOICE) study, one of the first national cohort studies of patient outcomes dialysis. He is a principal investigator of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention National CKD Surveillance System. In 450 publications, he has studied early referral of CKD patients, patient-physician contact in dialysis care, cost-effectiveness of screening for proteinuria, race differences in cardiovascular procedure use among CKD patients, effect of treatment modalities on survival, outcomes of emergent vs standard hemodialysis for immigrants, outcomes of dialysis care by type of ownership and access to transplantation.
Dr. Powe earned his MD at Harvard Medical School and his MPH at Harvard School of Public Health and residency and fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- FNKF
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- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
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- Board Member / Chief Customer Officer / Atlanta, GA
Orlando is responsible for business development, managing client relationships, overseeing deployments and operational strategy in company at Afiniti, the world's leading applied artificial intelligence company that pairs enterprise customers with agents based on behavior. Prior to joining Afiniti, Orlando was responsible for inbound and outbound sales performance for Chase Card Services and for overseeing more than 2,000 employees in vendor operations in India, the Philippines and South America. Orlando is the executive sponsor for Afiniti's Women in Leadership series and a passionate advocate for women and minorities in the workplace.
His deeply personal connection to kidney disease began when his stepfather's kidneys failed due to a deteriorating condition that led to dialysis. Eventually, Hampton's stepfather became eligible for the kidney transplant, but sadly suffered heart failure and died a month later.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- President
- FNKF
- FNKF - Chair NKF President
- Professor of Medicine
Dr. Palevsky is Professor of Medicine and Clinical and Translational Science in the Renal-Electrolyte Division at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is Chief of the Renal Section at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. He completed his undergraduate and medical education at Northwestern University followed by internship and residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Palevsky joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1989, where he has remained since. Dr. Palevsky's research has primarily focused on acute kidney injury and critical care nephrology. He was the study chair of the VA/NIH Acute Renal Failure Trial Network (ATN) study evaluating intensity of renal replacement therapy in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury and currently serves as co-chair of the PRESERVE trial, evaluating the comparative effectiveness of saline and bicarbonate and the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine in preventing kidney damage following angiography. Among other clinical trials, Dr. Palevsky was a member of the planning and executive committee of the VA NEPHRON-D study, which compared monotherapy with an angiotensin receptor blocker to combination therapy with both an angiotensin blocker and an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor in slowing progression of diabetic kidney disease and is a member of the steering committees for the EUPHRATES trial, evaluating extracorporeal endotoxin adsorption in severe sepsis. Dr Palevsky has published more than 200 original articles, reviews and book chapters, serves as a deputy editor of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and is section editor for Renal Failure for UpToDate. He is a former member of the board of directors and past chair of the Quality, Safety and Accountability committee of the Renal Physicians Association, and is the vice-chair of the board of directors of Quality Insights Renal Network 4
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- Member of the Honorary Board
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- Community Outreach Manager
- Local Staff Member
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- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- Internships
Raquel Greer, MD, MHS is a health services researcher and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is also a practicing general internist at the Johns Hopkins General Internal Medicine Clinic at Green Spring Station. Dr. Greer's research program focuses on identifying and addressing ethnic/racial disparities in care and clinical outcomes of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and CKD risk factors, including diabetes and hypertension. Her experience includes the conduct of qualitative and quantitative studies a) to identify patient-, provider-, and system-level factors contributing to poor quality of care of ethnic/racial minorities and non-minorities with CKD and CKD risk factors, b) to develop behavioral and educational interventions to improve patients' self-management of their CKD risks (i.e. diabetes and hypertension), and c) to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions in randomized controlled trials. She is a Fellow and Medical Advisory Board Member of the National Kidney Foundation and holds membership in Member, Society of General Internal Medicine the Society of General Internal Medicine, Network of Minority Research Investigators (NMRI), American College of Physicians and the American Society of Nephrology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Territory Manager
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- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
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- Member of the Honorary Board
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Chairman )
- Chairman of COMMITTEE
- Senior Staff Physician at the Henry Ford Hospital
Sandeep Soman is a senior staff physician at the Henry Ford Hospital and Health System who is interested in health outcomes research, clinical informatics and has worked in the development of the academic CKD clinic and reducing readmissions for ESRD patients. Dr. Soman is an active NKF member, having served on the Program Committee for the NKF Spring Clinical Meetings, as well as Associate Editor for Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease.
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- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- FNKF
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- Local Staff Member
- Executive Director - 212.889.2210 Ext. 221
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- Senior Vice President, Government Relations
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- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
- DO, FNKF - Co - Chair
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- Vice President, Corporate Relations
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- Transportation Coordinator
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- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Dr. Thavarajah is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the division of Nephrology. Much of her work has focused on the development of patient education programs including videos, live classes and patient conferences with a focus on understanding kidney disease, dialysis modalities and transplant options. She has a strong interest in clinical operations. She currently serves as the Medical Director for the JHBMC Nephrology clinic, acute dialysis services at JHBMC, and outpatient dialysis units. Dr. Thavarajah joined the BMC Nephrology editorial board in October 2019 as a Blog Editor for the journal. She has been committed to education and dedicated to bringing community awareness on kidney disease through her work with the National Kidney Foundation serving Maryland and Delaware.
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- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Regional Vice President, Resource Development
Dr. Rosas is a nephrologist and epidemiologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Ma. She is the Director of the Latino Kidney Clinic and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She also is a nephrologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her primary research focus is on the epidemiology of metabolic and cardiovascular disease complications in patients with chronic kidney disease particularly diabetic kidney disease. She has also evaluated health disparities in individuals with CKD particularly in those of Hispanic/Latino background.
Dr. Rosas is the clinical center PI in the NIDDK-funded multicenter APOL1 Long-term Kidney Transplantation Outcomes Network (APOLLO) that evaluates the role of the APOL1 gene in kidney transplant outcomes. She is also the PI for the Kidney Precision Medicine Program (KPMP) Chronic Kidney Disease recruitment site at Joslin Diabetes Center. KPMP aims to ethically obtain and evaluate human kidney biopsies in order to create a kidney tissue atlas, define disease subgroups, and identify critical cells, pathways, and targets for novel therapies. She has received numerous awards including the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) of New England Physician of the Year in 2017 and National Hispanic Medical Association Fellow of the Year Award. In addition to being a long-time volunteer for the National Kidney Foundation, she is the president-elect and will begin her term as President in October 2022. On a local level, she has been a member of the medical board of the NKF NE chapter. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and the Advances of Chronic Kidney Disease Journal. Dr. Rosas served as the Chair of the Minority Affairs Committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). Dr. Rosas has been the secretary for Women in Nephrology as well as Program Committee Chair for the NIDDK Network for Minority Health Research Investigators.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Development Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
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- Development Manager
- Local Staff Member
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- Member of the NKFALL Board of Directors
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- Assistant Professor
- Consultant
Varun Agrawal is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and a consultant nephrologist within the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at University of Vermont College of Medicine. His research interests focus on diabetes and obesity in CKD patients, as well as initiatives to improve education of patients and physicians in training. Dr. Agrawal has served as a reviewer for numerous medical journals, including the Journal of American Society of Nephrology, Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, Clinical Nephrology, Journal of Critical Care Medicine, and the American Journal of Kidney Diseases. He is very interested in He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and American Society of Nephrology, and a member of the National Kidney Foundation, Massachusetts Medical Society, American Society of Hypertension, and the American Society of Diagnostic and Interventional Nephrology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Medical Advisory Board
Dr. St. Peter is a Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center, where she also completed a fellowship in adult medicine. She served as a clinical practitioner at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for several years where she provided medication therapy management of dialysis and chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients as part of a interprofessional team. She was Associate Dean and Director, Division of Professional Education in the College of Pharmacy from 1997-2000. In 2000, she became an investigator with the Chronic Disease Research Group and also with the United States Renal Data System (USRDS, 2000-2014) in Minneapolis. Dr. St. Peter's career has been focused on improving medication management and drug safety in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to improve health outcomes. She conducts clinical and pharmacoepidemiologic research using Medicare, health system as well as commercial datasets. She conducted and helped design the secondary study of the large prospective Dialysis Clinical Outcomes Revisited (DCOR) trial, linking trial data with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data to determine additional clinical outcomes and economic costs. Dr. St. Peter holds fellowships in the American Society of Nephrology, American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the National Kidney Foundation. She has served on several national technical expert panels for medication-related safety and quality measurement issues. Her current research interests include new models of care for CKD patients as well as treatment of CKD anemia, mineral and bone disorder, and the intersection of management of heart failure, CKD and/or acute kidney injury.