Fellowship Training Program Information

The mission of the UVA School of Medicine Nephrology Fellowship program is to produce physicians who are not only leaders in the nephrology field but also firmly committed to lifelong learning. Our faculty are recognized nationally and internationally in research, education, and clinical care.

Our Clinical Faculty..

• are recognized as national and international leaders in different fields of nephrology
• are recipients of several prestigious national and local award for teaching excellence
• serve on editorial boards of high impact journal, NIH study sections, and different national professional organizations’ clinical practice guideline committees

A brief description of each of our faculty’s area of expertise and recent accomplishments can be found below

Emaad Abdel-Rahman, MBBS, PhD has clinical interests in geriatric nephrology, hemodialysis, AKI, and home hemodialysis.  For the past two decades, he has been a favorite teacher for the fellows, and he is also a great mentor for residents, fellows, and junior faculty members.

Rasheed Balogun, MBBS is known internationally for his expertise in the area of blood purification techniques including hemodialysis, continuous renal replacement therapy, and therapeutic apheresis. He is the course director for the annual international Therapeutic Apheresis Academy.

Brendan Bowman, MD completed his residency and fellowship training at UVA.  He is heavily involved in fellows’ education and is ranked among our top educators in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.  He is currently the regional director of UVA Health System dialysis operations.  His interest and experience in the care of ESRD patients, quality improvement, and the business operations of dialysis have made him a unique internal resource for our fellows.

Adam Campbell, MD, completed his residency at the University of Kentucky and nephrology fellowship at the University of Virginia. He is based at Augusta Hospital and has a clinical interest in nephrolithiasis.

Corey Cavanaugh, DO, Associate Program Director, joined the faculty in 2019 after completing his clinical fellowship at Yale University.  In the spring of 2020, he established a glomerular disease clinic at UVA and in collaboration with colleagues in the Division of Rheumatology established the Rheumatology-Nephrology combined glomerulonephritis clinic. Dr. Cavanaugh has expanded the curriculum by starting monthly renal pathology rounds “at the microscope” with nephrology fellows to introduce them to basic concepts in renal histopathology and typical patterns of glomerular diseases. He was a recipient of the Department of Medicine Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021.

Tushar Chopra, MD is the Program Director of the Nephrology Fellowship Training Program. He joined our faculty after completing fellowship training at Vanderbilt University in 2015.  He has received several Teaching Excellence awards at UVA.  His main area of clinical interest is acute peritoneal dialysis (PD), and he started the Urgent Start PD program at UVA.  His current teaching projects involve overseeing clinical graduate medical education, developing innovative educational tools, and curriculum reform. He was the recipient of the highly competitive American Society of Nephrology William and Sandra Bennett Clinical Scholar grant to improve PD prescription writing among trainees.

Alden Doyle, MD joined the UVA faculty from Drexel University in 2016.  He is currently the Medical Director of Kidney Transplantation at UVA. He has twenty years of experience in immunology, international medicine, and patient-focused transplant care. He is considered one of the top educators by his trainees here at UVA and throughout his career elsewhere. He is the recipient of multiple awards for educational excellence and was recently awarded the Department of Medicine Clinical Excellence Award.   His areas of clinical interest include combined and sequential transplants, transplantation in HIV patients, and kidney disease following organ transplantation.

Uta Erdbruegger, MD joined the faculty after completion of her fellowship training at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  Her clinical interest is in rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis.  Her research involves the functional role of platelet and endothelial microvesicles in health and disease.

Jeanne Kamal, MD joined the faculty in 2019. She completed her nephrology fellowship at New York University and her transplant fellowship at Columbia University. She is interested in adult transplant nephrology mainly in the area of recurrence of kidney disease after transplantation.

Sana Khan, MD completed her nephrology fellowship at UVA following residency at the University of Cincinnati. Her area of clinical interest is peritoneal dialysis. She is the co-leader of the Renal System course in the SOM pre-clerkship curriculum.

Daphne Harrington Knicely, MD, MD MEHP, completed her residency at the East Carolina University and nephrology fellowship at UVA. She joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University before returning to UVA.  She is based at Augusta Hospital and has a clinical interest in patient education and patient-centered outcomes research.

Anubhav Kumar, MD, joined the faculty in 2019 after completing nephrology and ultrasound fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in curriculum development and is working on training fellows in one-on-one and classroom sessions in the use of point-of-care ultrasound to enhance diagnostics and the delivery of care to patients.

Joseph Leeds, MD, is a new faculty member joining our transplant nephrology team at UVA. He finished his residency at Stony Brook University in NY and completed general nephrology and transplant training at UVA. He was a former trainee of Nephrology’s T32 Program.

Peter Lobo, MD is one of our transplant nephrologists and an expert immunobiologist.  He was the prior Director of the HLA tissue typing laboratory at UVA.  Fellows have enjoyed his outstanding teaching style and how he stimulates their critical thinking by asking probing questions.

Angie Nishio-Lucar, MD completed nephrology and transplant nephrology fellowships at UVA following residency at Henry Ford Hospital.  Her clinical interest areas include non-infectious complications of renal transplantation, barriers to transplantation, obesity, and transplantation, and living donation.

Mark Okusa, MD, is the chief of the Division of Nephrology at UVA.  He served as the President of the American Society of Nephrology from 2018-2019. He is known internationally for his contributions to understanding the pathophysiology of acute kidney injury. Despite his busy schedule, Dr. Okusa has made fellow education a priority. He continues to attend on the inpatient ICU and floor consult services and supervises fellows in their continuity clinic. Fellows have consistently ranked Dr. Okusa as one of their top educators. He is the director of 2 research educational training grants; 1) NIH R25. The University of Virginia Kidney Technology Development Research Education (VA K-TUTOR). This grant is aimed to attract technology-oriented undergraduate students into nephrology research and 2) Integrated Virginia Research Training Centers in KUH (IGNITE KUH). This grant serves as a state-wide pre-and postdoctoral training grant to support research in Kidney, Urology, and Hematology at UVA, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Swati Rao, MD is a transplant nephrologist and medical director of the UVA’s Pancreas Transplant Program, who joined UVA in 2018. She completed nephrology fellowship training at Temple University and transplant nephrology fellowship at Emory University. Her research interests are pregnancy post-transplant, multi-organ transplant, and clinical outcomes.

Amanda D. Renaghan, MD joined the UVA faculty in 2017 after completing internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She has established the first dedicated Onco-Nephrology clinic at UVA Cancer Center to care for patients living with cancer and kidney disease. Her research is primarily focused on this unique specialty and includes investigating the effects of chemotherapy on the kidneys. She is active in medical student, resident, and fellow education.

Mitchell Rosner, MD is the chair of the UVA Department of Medicine. He was the recipient of the 2019 ASN Robert G. Narins Award for lifetime achievement in teaching excellence. He has won several prestigious teaching awards at UVA, and he served as the director of the ASN nephrology board review course and the chair of the ASN Kidney Week program committee. His areas of clinical and research interest include ADPKD and disorders of sodium and water balance. He supervises fellows during their inpatient rotations and in their continuity clinics.

Julia Scialla, MD, MHS joined the faculty at UVA in 2019 and is the Director of Outcomes Research, Departments of Medicine & Public Health Sciences, and the Director of the Nephrology Clinical Research Center. Her primary focus is on epidemiology and outcomes research in chronic kidney disease. Dr. Scialla is deeply committed to mentoring fellows who wish to experience the clinical research process first-hand and to bring their curiosity and ideas to improve patient care and prevention in kidney disease. She is one of the Division’s top educators.

Anita Vincent-Johnson, MD, is a new faculty member, joining our team at Augusta Hospital. She received her residency training at Roanoke-Carillion followed by nephrology fellowship at UVA.  She will practice general nephrology at Augusta Hospital while attending the consult service at UVA.

Karen Warburton, MD, joined the UVA faculty in 2016 after spending ten years on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a transplant nephrologist with clinical interests in immunosuppressive medication, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease following solid organ transplantation. She is the recipient of multiple awards for teaching and mentorship. She has a long history of leadership experience in graduate medical education and currently serves as the Director of Graduate Medical Education Advancement at UVA. She also directs the ClinicianWellness Program for the UVA Health System. In these roles, Dr. Warburton works with faculty and trainees to promote personal and professional wellbeing, find meaning in their work as a means of reducing burnout and promoting engagement, and foster effective interpersonal communication by increasing self-awareness and promoting emotional intelligence skills.