Meda E. Pavkov is a physician scientist with research centering on complications of diabetes. After completing a five-year post-doctoral research fellowship with the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Phoenix, Arizona, she joined the Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, as lead epidemiologist. Currently serves as lead of the Epidemiology Team in DDT's Epidemiology and Statistics Branch. Dr. Pavkov's projects center on the progression of early kidney disease in diabetes, studies of the association of persistent organic pollutants with diabetes and kidney disease, development of simulation models of kidney disease progression and outcomes, racial/ethnic disparities, and diabetes related kidney disease in youth. Other national and international research projects include the DDT sponsored CKD Surveillance Project and the Global and Country-specific Rates and Trends in Incidence of Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease. For her contributions in developing the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative, she received HHS Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service. Dr. Pavkov published articles, reviews and book chapters that focused on the relationship between kidney and cardiovascular disease, changes in the pattern of diabetes in a high risk population, the impact of youth-onset diabetes on development of kidney complications, and the epidemiology of kidney disease in diabetes.