Introducing the 9 members of the Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) who will decide the outcome of each matchup for NephMadness 2023!

Naief AbuDaff 

Naief AbuDaff is a nephrology fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He graduated medical school from Alfaisal University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and did his internal medicine residency training at The Brooklyn Hospital Center. He was a NephMadness Top Fellow scorer in 2022.

Michelle A. Josephson @MichelleJTx
Michelle A. Josephson is Professor of Medicine and Surgery in the Section of Nephrology and Transplant Institute at University of Chicago. She serves as Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation and Program Director of the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship.  Dr. Josephson is President of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). She fondly remembers when her alma mater’s basketball team, the Penn Quakers, had an unlikely and memorable season and advanced to the Final Four.

Katarzyna Kakareko @kponikwicka

Katarzyna Kakareko is the winner of NephMadness 2022. She is an Attending at the 2nd Department of Nephrology and Hypertension with Dialysis Unit at the Medical University of Bialystok in Poland (@IINefroUMB has been an active participant of NephMadness for many years). Dr Kakareko was awarded the title of Rising Star of Polish Nephrology 2022 by Polish Society of Nephrology.

Peter Kerr

Peter Kerr is Professor and Director of Nephrology at Monash Health and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He has broad interests in Nephrology, with a dialysis focus but has published in most areas of Nephrology. He has been active in the Australian, Asian-Pacific, and International Societies of Nephrology and was, for 8 years, the Editor-in-Chief of Nephrology.

Abdul Qader @md_abdulqader83

Abdul Qader works as a Pediatric Nephrologist at Square Hospitals Ltd in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also the coordinator of the Square Children Kidney and Dialysis Center. His areas of focus are critical care nephrology and renal replacement therapy. He is a co-editor of the Little Beans community of KIReports and a KIReports social media content creator. Additionally, he serves as one of the moderators of IPNJC and contributes to the International Pediatric Nephrology Association’s communication committee. He is also the international affairs secretary of the Paediatric Nephrology Society of Bangladesh and a member of the Asian Pediatric Nephrology Association’s junior council.

Sylvia E. Rosas @sylviaerosas

Sylvia E. Rosas is a nephrologist and epidemiologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rosas clinical and research interest include diabetic kidney disease as well as health disparities in individuals with CKD. She is the President of the National Kidney Foundation and chairs the NKF Health Equity Advisory Committee.

Shilpi Shah @sshah713

Shilpi Shah is a second-year general nephrology fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Shah had the second-highest fellow score in NephMadness 2022. She is happy to be one of the first fellows on the Blue Ribbon Panel, and is looking forward to seeing how the competition shakes out this year.

Jodi Smith @jodismith0820

Jodi Smith is a Professor of Pediatrics and an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She is the Medical Director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Medical Director of the Research Integration Hub of the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She is the current President of the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology. Dr. Smith is on the Board of Directors of the North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies and is the Senior Staff for Pediatrics for the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. In addition, she serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Pediatric Transplantation. Her research focuses on improving kidney transplant outcomes in the pediatric transplant population. 

Curtis Warfield @chwcbak

Curtis Warfield is a System’s Analysis with the State of Indiana. Curtis was diagnosed with CKD disease in 2012 and in 2016 received a living donor kidney from his daughter’s college sorority sister. Curtis is an active patient advocate, peer mentor, participates on patient advisory boards, kidney taskforces, technical and medical review panels. He co-chairs NKF’s Patient Diversity Workgroup and a member of ASN’s Kidney Health Initiative Patient & Family Partnership Council. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Kidney Foundation of Indiana and Home Dialyzors United.

Hope you’re all excited for NephMadness 2023! Friendly reminder: have you scheduled a time to complete your group bracket yet?

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