Faculty

Division of Nephrology:
FACULTY RECRUITMENT, RECOGNITION & SERVICE

• Recent Additions to Nephrology Faculty
• Faculty Profiles: Gilbert Kinsey and Sundararaman Swaminathan

Nephrology faculty were recognized in a variety of ways over the last year. Thu Le was appointed to the Harrison Distinguished Teaching professorship, which honors UVA teachers who are considered “master educators.” W. Kline Bolton received the 2014 Distinguished Nephrology Service Award from the Renal Physicians Association at its annual meeting in Baltimore in March 2014. Four Nephrology faculty members were included on the 2014 “Best Doctors in America List,” published by Best Doctors Inc.: W. Kline Bolton, Kambiz Kalantari, Mark Okusa, Mitchell Rosner.

At the Department of Medicine 2014 awards ceremony, Amandeep Bajwa received an Outstanding Research award, and Garland A. Campbell an Outstanding Clinical Care award.

During FY 2014 the division recruited a senior faculty member, Didier Portilla, who joined the faculty in July 2014. Dr. Portilla came to UVA from the University of Arkansas. Read more about Dr. Portilla here.  The division also hired several junior faculty members at the assistant professor rank; they joined the division in July and August, 2013:

• Brendan Bowman (UVA Nephrology fellow)
• Angie Nishio (UVA Nephrology and Transplant fellow)
• Jay Patel (UVA Nephrology fellow)

UVA Nephrology fellow Sana Khan joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Medicine in September 2014. For more about Nephrology’s new faculty members, go here.

Additional service and notable achievements:

• Emaad Abdel Rahman: board member, Geriatric Advisory Group, American Society of Nephrology
• Rasheed Balogun: oversees UVA’s commitment to the Sister Renal Center (SRC) program of the International Society of Nephrology, which aims to enhance cooperation between nephrology centers worldwide; board member, American Society for Apheresis, 2013; council member, International Society for Blood Purification, 2013
• W. Kline Bolton: peer reviewer, NIH Study Section–NIDDK Special Emphasis Panel ZDK1 GRB-S (J1)
• Michael Brown: member, NIH Study Section on Immunity and Host Defense
• Garland (Adam) Campbell: appointed chair of medicine, Augusta Hospital
• Kambiz Kalantari: Mulholland Award for Teaching Excellence in Foundations of Medicine (selected by medical students for outstanding teaching in the NxGeneration Curriculum)
• Douglas Keith: published high-profile paper in the American Journal of Transplantation, entitled “The Role of Minority Geographic Distribution in Waiting Time for Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation” (Gayle Vranic was a co-author)
• Gilbert Kinsey: member, grants review committee, American Society of Nephrology; Kristen Whalen of the Kinsey lab won a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award
• Thu Le: associate editor, American Journal of Physiology
• Mark Okusa: industry award from SphynKx Therapeutics for project, “Evaluation of Sphingosine Kinase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease”; upcoming president, American Society of Nephrology (2018); member, American Clinical and Climatological Association
• Heather Perry: 2014 Early Career Investigator Award (Werner Risau Award in Vascular Biology) from Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis & Vascular Biology (ATVB) Journal. Perry is a postdoctoral fellow in the Okusa lab.
• Mitchell Rosner: elected Fellow, American Heart Association, 2013; 2014 Charles Austin Visiting Professor in Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine (Dallas, Texas); board member, Renal Physicians Association; program chair, RPA annual meeting, 2014; associate editor, American Journal of Kidney Disease; co-chair, American Society of Nephrology board review course; co-chair, OncoNephrology Forum of the American Society of Nephrology; plenary speaker, First Annual Forum Éducationnel pour les Néphrologues (June 2014); Quebec City.
• Rahul Sharma: “LaunchPad” grant from the Diabetes Biomedical Innovation Fund, for translational research in diabetes
• Sudararaman Swaminathan: AstraZeneca-UVA Strategic Alliance grant; O’Brien Pilot Development award; editorial board member, Kidney international