EPC Leadership

Dr. Kliger is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Standing Renal Committee for the National Quality Forum, and chairs the Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety initiative, a national partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). He served formerly as Senior Vice President Medical Affairs, Chief Quality Officer, Yale New Haven Health System and Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Hospital of Saint Raphael, New Haven Connecticut. He is a past president of the Renal Physicians Association, and serves on its Quality, Safety and Accountability Committee. He is a past president of the Forum of ESRD Networks. He served as chair of the steering committee for the NIH Frequent Hemodialysis Study, a national prospective randomized study of in-center daily and home nocturnal hemodialysis, and currently chairs the steering committee for an NIH/NIDDK Consortium on Novel Therapies for Hemodialysis Patients.

Dr. Bryant joined the University of Louisville School of Medicine faculty in 2000 and is currently a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Since 2008, she has directed the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at U of L. She is currently the President-elect of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the world’s largest organization of professionals dedicated to the treatment, control, and eradication of infectious diseases affecting children.

Dr. Bryant is the hospital epidemiologist at Norton Children’s Hospital and a member of the leadership team that coordinates infection prevention and control efforts at Norton Healthcare. She is active in state-wide efforts to prevent healthcare-associated infections and is a member of  the Kentucky State Regional Infection Prevention and Epidemiology (K-STRIPE) committee. She is a former chair of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Guidelines Committee and has co-authored several infection prevention guideline/guidance documents. She is the co-editor of a book, Handbook of Pediatric Infection Prevention and Control, scheduled for publication this spring. In December 2016, Dr. Bryant was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), a federal advisory committee that provides advice and guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding strategies for surveillance and prevention and control of health care associated infections in United States health care facilities.

Dr. Garrick is a practicing nephrologist with over 30 years’ experience. She is the Executive Medical Director of Westchester Medical Center, a public benefit hospital, and Chief Medical Officer of Westchester Health Network, a 1,700 bed academic health system with hospitals and offices in the Westchester and the Hudson Valley. As CMO of Westchester Health Network, she oversees quality, safety, and regulatory initiatives for the Health Network, and has extensive experience with quality initiatives as they relate to patients with kidney disease. She currently serves as the medical director of a non-profit dialysis facility and previously chaired the NY State’s taskforce on dialysis care. She serves on the Quality Steering Committee of Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), and on the New York State Department of Health Quality Advisory Committee for Office Based Surgery .She currently serves on NQF Renal Standing Committee and has served on NQF Technical expert panels. She has participated in the creation of Patient Related Outcome Measures for patients with kidney disease. Additionally, she has served on the Divisional Board of IPRO- ESRD Network of New York, and is a past board member of the Renal Physicians Association, where she currently serves on the Quality, Safety and Accountability Committee. She is a member of the ASN Nephrologist Transforming Dialysis Safety Workgroup and serves on a Data and Safety Monitoring Board of the NIH/NIDDK.

Alp Ikizler, MD is the Director of Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Catherine MacLaughlin-Hakim Chair in Vascular Biology and Professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. His clinical and research activities are focused on improving the clinical outcomes and quality of life in patients with acute and chronic kidney disease.

Jay L. Koyner, MD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Section of Nephrology at the University of Chicago. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. He then went on to complete medical school at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he awarded a degree with distinction in research following completion of an additional year for a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship. Dr. Koyner completed his internal medicine and nephrology training at the University of Chicago, where he currently serves as the Medical Director of the Inpatient Dialysis Unit and Director of ICU Nephrology. His critical care nephrology research interests have focused on the utilization of plasma and urine biomarkers to improve patient risk stratification and outcomes in the setting of AKI. Additionally, Dr. Koyner has contributed to several multicenter facilities investigating the biomarkers of AKI, including the TRIBE-AKI study and the Furosemide Stress Test. Other research interests have included AKI following cardiac surgery, CRRT, and AKI therapeutics. Currently, he is working on using the electronic health record to develop AKI risk scores to improve the care of patients with early AKI. Dr. Koyner has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on AKI and the care of patients with kidney injury in the ICU.

Dr Levin is a Professor of Medicine, Head Division of Nephrology at the University of British Columbia, and Consultant nephrologist at Providence Health Care/ St Paul’s Hospital, in Vancouver Canada. She is Sr Medical Lead, Integration Clinical and Academic Networks at PHC.

She is the Executive Director of BC Renal, which oversees the care, planning and budgets for Kidney services in the province of British Columbia. She has recently established and led a province wide Post Covid-19 Interdisciplinary Clinical Network PC-ICCN), embedding research and clinical care in a learning health care network. She is Lead of the PC ICCN, housed at Provincial Health Services Authority. She is a founding member of the KRESCENT program (Kidney Research Scientist Education National Training program), and continues as a senior advisor.

She is active in international activities across the spectrum of kidney education, research and administrative activities, and was past President of International Society of Nephrology (ISN), from 2015-17), and a founding member of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (DICG). She advocates for patient rights to equitable access to care, and in the prevention of exploitation of vulnerable populations. Her major research interests include cardiovascular disease and comorbidities in CKD patients, variability in the progression of CKD and optimal models of care. She has over 600 peer reviewed publications, and numerous book chapters. Her H-index is 102.  She is the Principal Investigator on a CIHR SPOR network grant CAN SOLVE CKD, worth $40million. This is the first pan-Canadian grant of this size ever awarded to study kidney disease.

She actively mentors medical students, residents, nephrology fellows, health administration fellows, PHD candidates. These include physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other allied health professionals. The mentoring includes clinical and research activities.

Her teaching and research awards include :Canadian Society of Nephrology Outstanding Contributions to Canadian Nephrology(2013), Kidney Foundation Research Medal of Excellence (2014),  and is a fellow of Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2014), and the Aubrey J Tingle Research Award for contributions to the province of BC (2015). In 2015, she was awarded The Order of Canada.

Ryan McDevitt is a Visiting Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business while on leave from Duke University and is a Research Associate in the Health Care Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining Duke, he held faculty positions at the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and was an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. He earned his B.A from Williams College and Ph.D. from Northwestern University, both in economics.

McDevitt’s research focuses on applied microeconomics, specifically on how health care providers respond to financial incentives, and has been published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, and JAMA. His work has been funded by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, the National Science Foundation, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the National Institute for Health Care Management. He has won teaching awards for his courses in economics, strategy, and econometrics.

Dr. Mohammed earned his medical degree from Cairo University in Egypt and completed residency training in internal medicine. He completed fellowship training in nephrology in Egypt and at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Dana Mitchell MD, FACP, FASN is the CEO of Global Kidney Center, in Houston, Texas, with extensive experience in care and treatment of kidney diseases as well as a background in emergency care. In addition to practicing clinical medicine, she currently serves as an adviser to nephrology groups given her experience with managing small and large nephrology practices.

She currently serves as the Medicine Program Director and chairs the Nephrology Clinical Performance Committee for the Memorial Hermann Physician Network. She has chaired and served on a variety of professional panels focused on clinical performance, quality and medical ethics.

Dr. Mitchell received the Exemplary Nephrology Practice Award from the Renal Physicians Association, is listed as one of Houston’s top doctors, was selected by the International Association of Healthcare Professionals as a Top Nephrologist in Texas, and has received numerous other awards for her contributions to advancing treatment and care of people with kidney diseases. She is a highly sought-after speaker addressing a wide range of complex issues in nephrology care, including medication management, patient safety, and quality assessment.

Dr. Mitchell received her medical degree from Louisiana State University. She completed her internship and residency at Louisiana State University and her fellowship at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Patrick H. Nachman, MD, FASN, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Director of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Director of the Minnesota Multidisciplinary Vasculitis Program, and Medical Director of the Nephrology Service Line at M Health Fairview.

Dr. Nachman received his M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine, and completed an internal medicine residency, nephrology fellowship and postdoctoral research training at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,w here he became Professor of Medicine and Deputy Director of the University of North Carolina Kidney Center.

His research efforts include the study of immune dysregulation leading to Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibodies formation. Over the years his investigations have shifted from bench to the clinical and translational aspects of research in ANCA vasculitis and glomerular diseases, focusing on the clinical course, outcomes, and complications of disease.

Dr. Nachman serves as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Cardiovascular and Renal Drug Advisory Board and served as member of the Board of Directors of the Kidney Health Initiative and is currently ASN councilor at large.

Dr Jeffrey Perl is a staff nephrologist at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is a prior recipient of The John Maher Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis and has received several teaching awards at The University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital. His primary research interests, clinical practice and teaching focuses on improving universal access to and clinical outcomes of home dialysis. Dr. Perl is a primary investigator in The International Peritoneal Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (PDOPPS) and co-principal investigator of the Optimizing the Prevention of Peritoneal Dialysis-Associated Peritonitis in The United States (OPPUS) study. He also co-chairs The American Society of Nephrology home dialysis steering committee and is previous chair of the ASN home dialysis subcommittee of the American Society of Nephrology COVID-19 response team. He is editor-in-chief of Peritoneal Dialysis International and recently co-chaired The KDIGO Home Dialysis Controversies Conference. He formerly served as chair of the ISN young nephrologists committee and co-chair of the ISN North American Caribbean regional board.

Rebecca J. Schmidt is a nephrologist with 29 years of experience as a rural practitioner, serving in a large academic group practice in the roles of clinician, teacher, administrative leader, dialysis medical director, and patient and physician advocate. A 1985 graduate of Des Moines University, Dr. Schmidt completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Nephrology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Joining the West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1993, she soon realized a passion for rural outreach that has defined her career. During her 17-year tenure as Chief of Nephrology, she led the initiative to decentralize the nephrology outpatient clinic system, expanding its reach from 1 to 12 chronic kidney disease clinics across northcentral West Virginia and the section’s dialysis care from 2 to 12 units, saving millions of driving miles for patients from more than 30 West Virginia counties. During this time, she served in a number of national roles, including an extended term as (the first and only woman) President of the Renal Physicians Association and as a member of many boards, forums, committees, task forces, technical expert panels and initiatives related to advocacy for and care of patients with kidney disease, including a statewide effort to screen West Virginians for kidney disease and educate primary care providers about its prevention and management. She currently is the physician of record for more than 100 dialysis patients at four dialysis facilities; her service as a dialysis medical director spans two decades. Dr. Schmidt’s clinical experience is founded upon caring for patients across the continuum of chronic kidney disease from early to late and through the life transitions inherent to dialysis-dependent end stage kidney failure and the end of life.

Dr. Schmidt serves as Assistant Dean for Outreach and Community Engagement for West Virginia University School of Medicine and as Senior Advisor to the Chair of the Department of Medicine. In 2005, Dr. Schmidt received the West Virginia University School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Excellence in Community Service. In 2006, she was honored as a Local Legend among West Virginia University Women Who Made a Difference. She received the Ethel and Gerry Heebink Award for Distinguished State Service (Extended) in 2007 and the Gift of Life Award from the National Kidney Foundation of the Alleghenies in 2008, the WVU Health Sciences Women in Science and Health Advanced Career Excellence Award in 2016, the American Association of Kidney Patients Medal of Excellence in 2018, and the Renal Physicians Association Distinguished Nephrologist Service Award in 2022.

Dr. Jeffrey Silberzweig is a nephrologist in New York, NY, and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including New York – Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and New York-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital. He received his medical degree from the University of Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and completed his residency at Beth Israel Medical Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Silberzweig has been in practice for 28 years. He has extensive experience in general nephrology and dialysis. His research interests include use of Biomarkers in patients requiring maintenance hemodialysis. Dr. Silberzweig is currently the Chief Medical Officer of The Rogosin Institute. He is also Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Silberzweig co-chair’s ASN’s COVID-19 Response Team and Emergency Partnership Initiative (EPI).

Quin is a kidney disease survivor and a Board Certified Patient Advocate.  She was on in-center hemodialysis at the University of Chicago, training for home dialysis, when she received the call to receive a kidney transplant.  Quin is a patient advocate, using her voice to improve the care and safety of kidney patients.  She has started a company, Tayloring Gratitude to share her message of hope with others.

Katherine R. Tuttle, MD, FASN, FACP, FNKF, is Executive Director for Research at Providence Health Care, Co-Principal Investigator of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences and Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. Tuttle earned her medical degree and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. She was a fellow in Metabolism and Endocrinology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Her Nephrology fellowship training was performed at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Tuttle’s major research interests are in clinical and translational science for diabetes and chronic kidney disease. She has published over 250 original research contributions and has been Associate Editor for the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and the American Journal of Kidney Disease.

Dr. Tuttle has received many honors and awards including the Medal of Excellence from the American Association of Kidney Patients, Garabed Eknoyan Award from the National Kidney Foundation, the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award in Science, and two Outstanding Clinical Faculty Awards at the University of Washington. Dr. Tuttle is Chair of the Diabetic Kidney Disease Collaborative Task Force for the American Society of Nephrology. She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Kidney Health Initiative and has chaired numerous kidney and diabetes related working groups and committees for organizations including the NIDDK/NIH, the National Kidney Foundation, the American Society of Nephrology, the International Society of Nephrology, and the American Diabetes Association.

Sushrut S. Waikar, MD, MPH received a BA in English and Neuroscience at Amherst College, his MD at Yale, and an MPH at Harvard. He is the Norman G. Levinsky Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and Chief of Nephrology at Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Waikar’s research interests and active projects include epidemiologic, translational, and interventional studies to address novel and clinically important questions in nephrology. Current areas of investigation include optimal diagnostic testing in acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease; biomarkers of kidney pathology and kidney fibrosis; the identification of relevant targets for interventional trials in kidney disease; and randomized controlled trials.

He is a Principal Investigator of several NIH grants including the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (U01 DK133092), Multi-omics and Chronic Kidney Disease: Correlation with Histology (R01 DK108803), Discovery Science Collaborative for CKDu (U01 DK130060), NAD Augmentation to Treat Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial (U01AG076789) and The Boston University Kidney and Medical Engineering Program (BU-KIDMEP, R25 DK128858).

Bradley A. Warady, MD is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Director, Division of Nephrology and Director, Dialysis and Transplantation at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Dr. Warady serves as Co-Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) Study and the International Pediatric Dialysis Network (IPDN). He is Vice President, Board of Directors of the North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies (NAPRTCS), Member, Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety (NTDS) committee, Governing Board Member of the Midwest Transplant Network (MTN), National Board Member for the National Kidney Foundation, and Treasurer of the International Pediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA).

Dr. Leslie Wong is Intermountain Healthcare’s Senior Medical Director of Kidney Services and Nephrology and Chief Kidney Health Officer. In this capacity, Dr. Wong leads Intermountain’s efforts to deliver nationally-recognized, value-based care, with an emphasis on reducing the incidence of kidney failure and improving the kidney health of communities across the Mountain West region of the U.S. 

Dr. Wong comes to Intermountain from his dual roles as Chief Medical Officer of Nephrology Care Alliance, a division of DaVita Inc., and Associate Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Medicare Accountable Care Organization. He is a seasoned nephrologist who served as Cleveland Clinic’s Vice-Chairman of Nephrology and Hypertension with emphasis on Clinical Transformation, Director of the Center for Dialysis, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Wong is a graduate of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.  He completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of North Carolina, where he was chief resident.  He started his career in in Seattle, where he was Medical Director of Peritoneal Dialysis at Northwest Kidney Centers, followed by becoming Satellite Healthcare’s Vice President of Clinical Affairs, leading quality, medical director education, and serving on faculty at Stanford.

Professionally, he is a nationally recognized nephrology educator and speaker.  He is a past member of the ASN Dialysis Advisory Group and Chair of Quality Assessment, Improvement, and Education for Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety (NTDS).  Dr. Wong currently participates in the ASN Diabetic Kidney Disease Collaborative and serves on the Excellence in Patient Care (EPC) Committee, helping guide ASN’s clinical initiatives.