Emerging Leaders

I am currently the Head of the Nephrology Department and Kidney Transplant Programme of University Teknologi MARA (UiTM). My passion is in medical education where I am involved in many of the undergraduate and national postgraduate activities. I also have a keen interest in transplant and am involved with various activities to help promote this.

I graduated in Medicine in 2005, received the degree of Nephrologist in 2011 and of PhD in 2016. I am currently a post-doc student in Epidemiology at Sao Paulo University and work as a nephrologist at Pro-Rim Foundation and as a professor at Univille School of Medicine in Joinville-Brazil. ELP program will improve my knowledge in public health policies and issues in the Nephrology field and will allow me to understand better what is needed to strengthen nephrology care, especially in my region.

Dr. Robert Kalyesubula graduated from Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) in medicine. He completed his master of Medicine from MUCHS and a nephrology fellowship and research training from Yale University (USA). He is currently a PhD student of NCD epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is currently a senior lecturer at MUCHS and the founding president of the Uganda Kidney Foundation.

I look forward to learning leadership from the vast resource leaders in the ISN fraternity with whom I will be interacting during the ISN Emerging Leaders Program.

Dr Anna Francis FRACP PhD is a clinician researcher at Queensland Children’s Hospital, Australia.  Her research interest is exploring long term outcomes for children and adolescents with CKD. In 2017, she received a Churchill Fellowship, travelling to Germany, England and the USA to explore transition programs to adult care. In 2019 she was appointed as an Editorial Fellow to Kidney International. Dr Francis is excited to forge international collaborations through the ISN ELP to amass better data to inform health care decisions for children and young adults with CKD.

Udeme Ekrikpo is a Senior Lecturer/Consultant Nephrologist with the University of Uyo, Nigeria and its teaching hospital. He is an IAMP-Young Physician Leader for Nigeria, epidemiologist and ISN-GKHA fellow. He pioneered renal replacement therapy for end-stage kidney disease patients in a 6.4 million population state in Nigeria’s Niger-Delta. He believes the collaboration and training from the ISN Emerging Leaders program will enhance his ability to proffer out-of-the-box solutions to renal care in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Titi Chen is a transplant nephrologist at Westmead Hospital and a clinician scientist at the University of Sydney. She is the recipient of the ISN Young Nephrologist Basic Science Award 2019 and ANZSN Basic Science Award 2018. Dr Chen is honoured to be given the opportunity to participate in this program to achieve her long- term career goal of combating global healthcare inequalities and promoting international collaboration and research in developing countries.

Dr. Rahul Chanchlani is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology at McMaster Children’s Hospital, Canada. In addition to clinical and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Chanchlani performs clinical research to address key knowledge gaps in common pediatric kidney diseases and has received local, provincial and national grants to support his work.

The ISN Emerging Leader’s Program would provide him with a solid platform to enhance his leadership skills and would also allow him to share his work and ideas on an international platform.

Dr. Eranga Wijewickrama is a Specialist Nephrologist and a Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is a member of ISN South Asia Regional Board and Educational Ambassadors Program Committee. He is the current editor of the Sri Lanka Society of Nephrology and the coordinator of the post-graduate training program in nephrology in Sri Lanka. His research interests include epidemiology of CKD and AKI in snakebites. He intends to develop a centre for tropical nephrology research with the help from the ISN Emerging Leaders Program.

Senior Lecturer, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Consultant Nephrologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
Secretary, Young Nephrologists Committee, African Association of Nephrology
Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity (George Washington University)
Researcher, Author and Kidney Health Advocate
Director, Kidney Health International (Kidney Health Promotion NGO based in Ghana)

I expect to emerge as a global leader to champion sustainable programs to advance kidney health locally, regionally and globally.

Nikhil Pereira-Kamath is the CEO, Director and Co-Founder of Africa Healthcare Network (AHN), the largest and most expansive provider of renal care in East Africa. Nik was a Candidate for an MBA at Harvard Business School and graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Economics and Finance. Nik looks forward to collaborating with peers across both clinical and non-clinical backgrounds to affect change in emerging economies, especially in Africa.

I am originally from Lebanon and I studied medicine at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. I came to the United States to continue my higher education and I was fortunate to train in Internal Medicine then in Nephrology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. After my graduation in 2015, I focused my efforts on the field of education and I successfully obtained a Master’s in Education. I am involved in several multi-department educational initiatives and I am currently working on building a virtual-reality 3D nephrology course. I see in the ISN Emerging Leader Program an opportunity to collaborate with experts across the field in order to promote renal education and improve kidney health worldwide.

Dr Vivek Kumar is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Nephrology at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh in India. The ISNEmerging Leaders Program will bean opportunity to gain experience in collaborative work environment, develop local and international networks to address context specific issues and lay foundation for more inclusiveand sustainable approaches for prevention and management of kidney diseases.

Head, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon and Member of the Young Nephrologist Committee of the ISN. Looking forward to nurture expertise and leadership skills in medical education, clinical research and health system development for the advancement of kidney health.

Dr. Michelle Wong is a nephrologist and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at University of British Columbia. In collaboration with BC Renal, her current research focuses on nutritional status assessment among patients with kidney disease and outcomes associated with oral nutritional supplementation. As part of the ISN ELP cohort, her goals are to build research collaborations between nephrologists and allied health professionals, and to translate research into policy development.