Speaker and Staff Bios

Get to Know Our Speakers and Staff (in alphabetical order)

Kristi Bickford, BA: Ms. Bickford is the UNC Kidney Center’s adolescent and young adult Transition Coordinator. She works directly with nephrology patients and their families to provide assessment, education, and intervention for the purpose of enhancing their disease knowledge and self-management. Ms. Bickford assists us with coordination of the peds fellows conference.

Melvin Bonilla-Felix, MD: Dr. Bonilla-Felix is a professor and chair in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Puerto Rico. His area of expertise is in renal physiology and disease/clinical trials. He is an International Pediatric Nephrology Association Counselor.

Timothy Edward Bunchman, MD: Dr. Bunchman is a Professor and division director of Pediatric Nephrology at Virginia Commonwealth University. His professional interests are acute kidney injury, glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome, transplantation, vasculitis and systemic lupus erythematosus. He created the pediatric CRRT Programs and website.

Mary Carter, PhD, MBA, MPH: Dr. Carter is the Research Program Director at the Renal Research Institute. She is responsible for the overall strategic management of the research program with a focus on team building and collaborative research in an international setting. Her oversight includes the annual CKD conference and Dialysis Times. Dr. Carter is the founder and director of the Sustainable Kidney Care Foundation.

Pierre Cochat, MD: Dr.Cochat is the president of the International Pediatric Nephrology Association and a Professor and division director of Pediatric Nephrology at Lyon University, France.

Maria Ferris, MD, MPH, PhD: Dr. Ferris, co-founder of the International Pediatric Nephrology Fellows Program, is an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has additionally founded the UNC Health Care Transition Program. She is a pediatric nephrologist and epidemiologist who also directs the pediatric Dialysis and Transplant Programs. Her mission is to develop evidence-based health provider and patient tools to measure transition and disease self-management, improving the outcomes of emerging adults with pediatric onset chronic conditions.

Joseph Flynn, MD, MS: Dr. Flynn is the president of the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology and a professor of pediatrics in the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also the division chief and medical director of dialysis at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Flynn completed his pediatric nephrology training at St. Christophers Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA, and later received an MS in Clinical Research from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

Debbie Gipson, MD: Dr. Gipson is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan and the Associate Director for the UM Clinical Research Management workgroup of the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research. Her clinical interests focus on the treatment of children with nephrotic syndrome, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and minimal change disease; glomerular diseases; and chronic kidney disease. Dr. Gipson is the principal investigator and co-investigator for clinical trials and long-term outcome studies for children and adults with nephrotic syndrome, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and minimal change disease. Her research team is engaged in understanding the impact kidney disease on brain function and quality of life in children.

Frederick Kaskel, MD, PhD: As the Director of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology at Children’s Hospital Montefiore in New York City, Dr. Kaskel is involved in basic and clinical investigations into the mechanisms of the major kidney disorders in pediatrics. He is particularly interested in the physiology and pathophysiology of normal and abnormal development and function of the kidneys throughout the critical periods of growth and maturation extending into adolescence and young adulthood. Dr. Kaskel is actively involved in a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to find the most efficacious therapy for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), while investigating the molecular etiologies for its expression. Another NIH-supported study involves chronic kidney disease in children and how it affects their growth and neurocognitive development, and the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and renal progression.

Peter Kotanko, MD: Dr. Kotanko is the RRI’s Research Director. His work spans bench science to clinical research to epidemiology to mathematical modeling, protocol design, manuscript preparation and teaching. His background and expertise in physiology and nephrology and 20 years of clinical experience enable him to be the intellectual leader for our scientists and fellows who come to train in clinical research. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Blood Purification and co-author of over 140 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters with 14 patents in the US alone.

Nathan Levin MD: Dr. Levin is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Chair of RRI’s Research Board. He is the founder and former Medical and Research Director of RRI under whose scientific leadership the Institute gained global recognition. He is the Chair of the Selection Committee for the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in the Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). He is the Co-Founder of Sustainable Kidney Care Foundation and an advisor to the Board of KidneyTel. He is the principal investigator of the NIH sponsored study of Frequent Dialysis. Dr. Levin is currently an adjunct Professor at the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. He is the Honorary Chair, Peking University, in Beijing, China and contributes to the global CKD community in a variety of functions.

John Mahan, MD: Dr. Mahan, co-founder of the International Pediatric Nephrology Fellows Program, is a Pediatric Nephrologist and continues to serve as General Pediatric Residency Program Director and Pediatric Fellowship Program Director at Nationwide Children’s Hospital/OSU, Columbus, Ohio. As Director of the OSU Center for Education and Scholarship he oversees a team of medical educators devoted to promoting best educational practices enduring contributions to medical education scholarship by the faculty of the OSU College of Medicine.

David Tauer, RN: Nurse Tauer has worked in Neuro ICU, CV Surgical ICU and the Recovery Room at The Texas Heart Institute, Houston, which included acute peritoneal dialysis and use of the first cyclers. He has served as nurse manager in Chronic Dialysis and was the Pediatric Coordinator in Acute Dialysis and Acute & Chronic Pediatric Dialysis, Houston. In addition, Nurse Tauere was also an educator for the Houston Area Collaborative Practice Pediatric ICU Program for Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis and served two years as president of the ANNA Gulf Coast Chapter. Since 2000, he has been the Home Therapies Manager at Carolina Dialysis in Carrboro, NC. Additional activities during this period included a mission to Tanzania, Africa, with the Sustainable Kidney Foundation, a two year assignment on the Fresenius Medical Care Nursing Advisory Board and collaboration with the pilot program for KidneyTel and the Beta trials of the Liberty Cycler.