KHI Board of Directors and Federal Liaisons
Disclosures as of September 2021 can be found here.

Uptal D. Patel, MD, Chair
Uptal Patel is Chief Medical Officer at HI-Bio. Prior to HI-Bio, he was the Head of Clinical Renal and Exec...
Read Bio
Kristen Miller, PharmD
Kristen Miller is a Health Scientist Policy Analyst in the Office of Medical Policy (OMP) in the Center fo...
Read Bio
Jorge Cerda, MD, MS, FASN
Professor Jorge Cerda, MD, MS, FACP, FASN Prof. Cerda was born and raised in Uruguay, and currently resides...
Read Bio
Manisha Dadhania, MBA
Manisha Dadhania brings over 18 years of experience in the medical device sector where she has primarily le...
Read Bio
Vanessa A. Evans, MA
Vanessa Evans has been on dialysis for over 26 years and lives in Boston, MA with her husband and two sons....
Read Bio
Jennifer E. Flythe, MD, MPH, FASN
Dr. Flythe is a nephrologist and clinical investigator at the ...
Read Bio
Kevin John Fowler
Kevin Fowler has over 30 years of Life Sciences experience in pharmaceutical organizations both commercia...
Read Bio
Barbara S. Gillespie, MD, FASN
Barbara S. Gillespie, MD, MMS, FASN, is a board-certified adult nephrologist who completed her residency in...
Read Bio
Amanda Grandinetti, MPH
Amanda Grandinetti, MPH is a research methodologist, a current Ph.D. candidate in health sciences for patie...
Read Bio
Nicolas Jose Guzman, MD
Nicolas J. Guzman, M.D. has been the Director of Nephrology Clinical Research at AstraZeneca since 2014. He...
Read Bio
Meg Jardine, MBBS, PhD
Professor Meg Jardine is the Director of the CTC and Lead of Kidney Health Research. Her research has focus...
Read Bio
Annamaria T. Kausz, MD, MS
Kausz, MD, MS is a nephrologist and pediatric nephrologist with an extensive background in evidence-based r...
Read Bio
Jeffrey Lawson, MD, PhD
Jeffrey H. Lawson, M.D., Ph.D. is Humacyte’s President and Chief Executive Officer. He is a physician-scien...
Read Bio
Vandana Dua Niyyar, MD, FASN
Vandana Dua Niyyar is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and has been designated Eminent P...
Read Bio
Thomas D. Nolin, PharmD, PhD, FASN
Dr. Tom Nolin is Associate Dean for Research and Sponsored Pro...
Read Bio
Ikenna Okezie, MD, MBA
Ikenna Okezie, MD, MBA is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Somatus, the market leader in val...
Read Bio
Meda E. Pavkov, MD, PhD
Dr. Pavkov is a physician scientist whose research centers on complications of diabetes. She has a doctorat...
Read Bio
Glenda V. Roberts
Prior to joining the UW Center for Dialysis Innovation and Kidney Research Institute as the Director of Ext...
Read Bio
Bruce M. Robinson, MD, MS, FASN
Bruce Robinson, MD, MS, FASN, has been Vice President of Clini...
Read Bio
Alain Romero, PharmD, PhD
Alain is currently Senior Vice President of L-GBT Medical Affairs at Pfizer. He has over 30 years of experi...
Read Bio
Brigitte Schiller, MD, FASN
Dr. Schiller is the SVP, Medical Officer Home Therapies at Fresenius Medical Care. From 2012-2022 she serve...
Read Bio
Amit Sharma, MD, FASN
Dr Sharma serves currently as the Vice President of Medical Affairs, Cardiovascular and Renal Division for ...
Read Bio
Robert A. Star, MD
As director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases, Dr. Star is responsible for mana...
Read Bio
Howard Trachtman, MD, FASN
I attended Haverford College and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. I completed my residency t...
Read Bio
James P. Smith, MD, MS
James P. Smith, MD, MS, is a nephrologist and medical officer in the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinolo...
Read Bio
Aliza M. Thompson, MD, MS
Aliza Thompson is Deputy Director of the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology, Center for Drug Evaluation ...
Read Bio
Celia Witten, MD, PhD
Celia M. Witten, Ph.D., M. D. is the Director of the Office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapy at the Cen...
Read Bio
Linda F. Fried, MD, FASN, MPH
Linda Fried, MD, MPH, FASN, is Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Clinical & Translational Science at...
Read Bio