Women’s Networking Event

About Dr. Josephson

Dr. Michelle Josephson is Professor of Medicine and Surgery and serves as the Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation and Program Director of the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship.

In 1992 Dr. Josephson became the first transplant nephrologist at University of Chicago and singlehandedly built our current robust kidney transplant program, the largest solid organ transplant program at the University of Chicago. She is also responsible for building a nationally respected and successful renal transplant fellowship training program.

Her mission is to improve the care and outcome of medically complex transplant patients through direct medical care, education and clinical research. Her research projects examine social determinants and barriers to living kidney donor, the pathogenesis of post-transplant bone disease, the role of BK viremia in renal transplant, and predictors of outcomes in post-transplant pregnancy. She is participating in the national “APOLLO” network trial to determine the effect of donor and recipient apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) on renal transplant outcomes. Dr. Josephson is currently the Senior Faculty Scholar of the Bucksbaum Institute where she has received funding to perform a needs assessment of patient decision making for kidney transplant options.

Dr. Josephson is deeply committed to education having established University of Chicago’s transplant nephrology fellowship, the first transplant nephrology fellowship in Illinois. Dr. Josephson served on AST’s Transplant Nephrology Fellowship Training Accreditation Board and lectures annually at ASN’s Board Review Course. She completed the Medical Education Research innovation teaching and Scholarship Fellowship (MERITS) and is currently the chair of American Society of Transplantation’s Community Education Taskforce.

Dr. Josephson participates in a number of national and international initiatives related to renal transplantation: she is a member of the KDIGO international work group that wrote “Care of the Transplant Recipient Guidelines.” She served as Councilor for the Board of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and Chair of American Society of Nephrology’s (ASN’s) Transplant Advisory Group. She was a member of ABIM’s nephrology test writing subcommittee. She serves on ASN’s Policy and Advocacy Committee. She lectures internationally for the Kidney Week Highlights Programs.