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DTX40 Speakers

in alphabetical order

Graham Abra, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor, Stanford University and Chief Medical Officer, Home Therapies
Satellite Healthcare

Dr Abra is a clinical nephrologist with deep expertise in the management of advanced chronic kidney disease at the patient and population level. He has significant experience in home dialysis, dialysis center Medical Directorship and Physician Leadership. Dr. Abra is a recognized leader in execution of clinical initiatives, medical communications and value based pharmaceutical conversions for dialysis organizations.

Ricardo Barragan

Senior Director of Biomedical Operations
Satellite Healthcare

Kathleen Belmonte, BSN, MGHIHP, MBA

Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President, Clinical Services
Fresenius Kidney Care

As an accomplished business owner, nurse practitioner and experienced healthcare leader, Kathleen draws from more than three decades of health care experience to oversee Fresenius Kidney Care’s Nursing & Clinical Services departments. Under her leadership, the nursing and clinical teams help dialysis care teams and clinicians improve the delivery of safe, high-quality care in a patient-centered environment.

Andrea Brown, MBA, CSSBB

Vice President, Home Therapies Operations and Systems
Fresenius Kidney Care

Andrea’s goal is to create world class programs through strong, dynamic teams. While leading project teams for nearly two decades, she has learned first-hand the importance of constantly improving and aligning processes and developing collaborative, innovative teams. Her goals are to enable strong leaders, find process efficiencies, improve quality, and drive growth.

Troy Burlson

Owner
MiB *(Men in Black) Disaster Response Solutions. Inc.

As the owner of a rapid response security business that specializes in disaster security and personal protection. MiB Executive Security Services, Troy specializes in helping organizations ensure that their disaster responses are appropriate and effective. Troy previously spoke at DTX about how to respond to an active shooter in the dialysis clinic.

Richard M. Cabrerra

National Account Manager Post Acute Commercial Operations – West
Fresenius Medical Care North America

Richard Cabrera has been in the dialysis industry since 1996. He has held positions ranging from Reuse Technician to Home Training Nurse on patient care side of the industry where he has trained hundreds of patients to transition home. He has also been a Patient Care Partner for his Father, when he became a Home Hemodialysis Patient in 2006. Richard has been working on the product side of the business for the last 10 years promoting growth and education in the Home Modalities. Using a consultative approach, Richard holds the title of National Account Manager for Post-Acute Commercial Operations – West and is responsible for 27 states Fresenius NxStage.

Danilo Concepcion, CBNT, CCHT-A, FNKF

Operations Manager, Renal Services
Providence St. Joseph Hospital

Dani is an active member in AAMI and NANT and has been instrumental in developing a career ladder for dialysis technicians at Providence St. Joseph Hospital.

Josh Copeland

Learning 2 Cope, LLC

Josh is a powerful speaker who speaks helps people maximize their full potential in their careers and in their personal life. He helps people become the best versions of themselves, which will lead to them being the best partner, spouse, parent, and employee they can be.

Josh received a scholarship to play college football for the University at Buffalo. After graduation he moved back home and had a hard time finding his way. He struggled with depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse trying to cope with transitioning to life after sports. He started his company Learning 2 Cope, LLC in 2017 and has since impacted thousands of lives across the country with his message.

Gail Dewald BS RN CNN

Nephrology Nurse

Gail is a seasoned nephrology nurse with over 30 years of expertise in the care of CKD Stage 5 patients. She has an extensive background in hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, pediatric dialysis, regulatory compliance, quality improvement, and healthcare administration. She holds a Bachelor’s degree and she has 30 years’ experience as a Certified Nephrology Nurse. She currently serves as the Leadership Development Chairperson of the American Nephrology Nurses Association and is their representative on the National Quality Forum’s Renal Committee. She volunteers for Network #14’s coalition on Patient & Family Engagement. She has provided education on a variety of topics to CKD patients, dialysis healthcare workers, physician groups and nursing groups. She currently provides Accreditation surveys for National Dialysis Accreditation Commission and has authored a section of the Core Curriculum for Nephrology Nursing 2020 on fluid management. Gail is a member of NANT, Renal Support Network, National Kidney Foundation, American Association of Kidney Patients and other various CKD groups. Gail is dedicated to improving the quality of care by educating those who treat these vulnerable patients.

Eric Espinoza

Technical Manager
H&S Technical Services

Eric Espinoza is an experienced Technical Manager, having been with H&S Technical Services since 1999. With over two decades of experience, Eric has become the voice for technical support in the Biomedical and Dialysis community. With a degree in Electronics and Engineering - along with his on-the-job experience and passion for helping others - Eric has helped carve a niche in the Biomedical world, setting the standard in dialysis equipment sustainability.

Michael and Christina Gilchrist

Michael and Christina Gilchrist are LIVING!! on dialysis. Christina known as “BLIND CHICK LIVING” on dialysis and Michael “THE CARETAKER” started support group LIVING!! on dialysis and are advocates for thousands. Christina has had over 20yrs of kidney experience doing all modalities and currently doing nocturnal home hemo.  Michael a full time aircraft composite tec inspector plus helping with dialysis.

Tracy Givens, RN, CDN

Vice President of Nursing
Satellite Healthcare

Tracey Givens was appointed to a newly created leadership position of Vice President of Nursing for Satellite Healthcare in November 2021. In this capacity, Tracey focuses on the needs of nursing care, policy, performance, quality improvement, and expansive aspects of program management for Pre-ESKD, acute, chronic and home dialysis therapies. She is a key clinical and business partner to the senior management team, and to clinical operations teams across the organization.

Mark Gray

Vice President of Technical Services
Fresenius Kidney Care

Zane Greear

Senior Director of Technical Methods and Systems
Fresenius Kidney Care

Zane started his career as a Chief Technician, then served as Regional Technical Specialist, Area Manager, and East Division Director of Technical Services. His current role is Senior Director of Technical Methods and Systems for Fresenius Kidney Care Technical Services.

Gopa Green, MD

Chief Medical Officer, In-Center Dialysis Services & Clinical Programs
Satellite Healthcare

Dr. Gopa Green is the Chief Medical Officer, In-Center Dialysis Services & Clinical Programs at Satellite Healthcare. She recently served as the Vice President of Quality and Clinical Programs, amongst other roles. She provides collaborative oversight of the Corporate Quality Program, leads the organization’s quality strategy and data analytics teams, and manages clinical improvement programs that improve the lives of those living with kidney disease. She also chairs the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee and the Medical Policy Committee. She is a strong advocate for quality and patient-centered care with a focus on physician and patient education.

Lisa Hauf

Director, Biomedical Services
DaVita

Technical director specializing in acute dialysis applications. Experience in acqusitions, financial analysis, policy and procedure development, and safety programs. Experience in hospital services and contract negotiations. Have worked closely with project management team in design and construction of new facilities and large scale renovations.

Shelba Jones, CHT-HT

Home Therapies, Patient Care Technician III Preceptor
Fresenius Kidney Care

Ted Kasparek

Senior Director to Technical Operations
DaVita

Michael Kraus, MD FACP

Associate Chief Medical Officer
Fresenius Kidney Care

Michael Kraus, MD, is Associate Chief Medical Officer at Fresenius Kidney Care focusing on home therapies and held a similar role with NxStage Medical Inc. before the company merged with Fresenius Medical Care in 2019. He is the former Service Line Chief for IU Health Physicians Kidney Diseases and Clinical Chief of Nephrology at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Tina Livaudais, RN, BSN, MBA

Chief Nursing Officer
DaVita Kidney Care

For nearly 30 years, I’ve called DaVita Kidney Care home. My career began as a patient care technician and quickly grew to other roles because I felt seen, heard, valued and celebrated. As chief nursing officer, I’m committed to ensuring all of our frontline caregiving teammates feel this way—and they know DaVita is a place where they can grow, from the moment of hire until they’re ready to retire.

Neghae Mawla, MD, FASDIN

Interventional Nephrologist
Dallas Nephrology Associates

Dr. Mawla also serves as Medical Director for DNA Vascular Center, Plano Texas and as a Physician for the Dallas Renal Group.

Kelly N. Mayo, MS

Vice President
Health Services Advisory Group

The End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices Learning Collaborative (ETCLC) organizations are working together to reduce the disparity in performance among organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and transplant centers. The quality improvement learning collaborative brings HRSA, CMS, more than 80% of US transplant centers and OPOs, and 120 of the nation's largest donor hospitals together to increase kidney's transplanted, decrease kidney's discarded and improve KDPI utilization greater than 60 percent.

As Chief Administration Officer and Vice President of Administration, Ms. Mayo provides oversight and direction for, and balances daily operations of, multiple Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracts including the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), the Measure & Instrument Development and Support (MIDS) for Hospital Inpatient and Outpatient Value, Incentives, and Quality Reporting, and three End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Networks. She offers more than 20 years of experience in healthcare, including both management and patient care practice.

Heide McILwraith

Calibrations and Solutions Production Manager
H&S Technical Services

I am Heide McILwraith. I have a bachelor's degree in Professional Chemistry and a master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry. My graduate research was the study of organic atmospheric particles. Atmospheric particulate matter is used as markers. I was looking at their reactions in clouds and half-life in the atmosphere to know if and how these particles can be used as markers. I have 13 years of teaching Chemistry at the college level. In industry, I have worked with food, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, and now medical devices. I currently manage Calibrations and Solutions production for H&S Technical Services.

Amanda Myers, RN, CHT

Facility Administrator
DaVita

As the North Central Regional Vice President on the NANT Board I am building a strong future for our community. Dialysis Technicians and Technologists are the backbone of dialysis. Education and connections can help drive our technicians to stay in the field longer and be more comfortable in their roles. As we all know, coming into dialysis can be very intimidating. As a NANT Board member, I am able to reach more technicians new to the role and help them build a strong future by introducing them to our amazing community for support and resources.

Mihran Naljayan, MD, MHA, FASN, FNKF

Chief Medical Officer – Home Modalities
DaVita Kidney Care

Mihran Naljayan, MD, serves as chief medical officer for DaVita Kidney Care’s home modalities and pediatrics, as well as the group medical director for the Galaxy Palmer, which is located in the south-central United States. At DaVita, Dr. Naljayan supports clinical outcomes and safety initiatives in home modalities and pediatrics, with a special interest in patient retention and health equity. Additionally, he designed the home physician support network, which works directly with physician practices to provide education and to help support home modality growth and clinical outcomes initiatives to improve access to home therapies to patients across the US.

Dr. Brad Nieder

Dialysis technicians need some love! The true heroes of healthcare, you’re the ones who bear the brunt of the healthcare system’s problems. Your facility is understaffed, and you are overworked and stressed! No wonder technicians are suffering from low morale, compassion fatigue and burnout. And you have to work with doctors and nurses! Many of you report feeling disengaged, undervalued and unrecognized for the amazing work you do every single day!

With Dr. Brad’s humor and insights, he can help dialysis technicians rediscover happiness at work, even among the myriad frustrations. And a little more satisfaction at work goes a long way toward understanding the Power of YOU!

Unini Odmana, MD, MPH

Vice President for Medical Affairs
DaVita Kidney Care

Dr. Unini Odama is a Nephrologist and Public Health Professional. She worked as a panelist member of the ESRD Technical Expert Panel (TEP) for the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) focusing on identifying health disparities and achieving health equity in renal dialysis services and eliminating health disparities that affect the dialysis patient population. She is also a current member of the Kidney Care Choice, CMS Health Equity Action Group.

Dr. Odama uses her clinical knowledge and passion for providing equitable and ethical clinical care in the areas of patient safety and quality, infection prevention and control, health equity, and integrated kidney care in her current role as the Vice President for Medical Affairs for DaVita Kidney Care.

Heather Paradis

Senior Manager of Water System Quality
Vivonic Water Systems

Heather started in dialysis technology as a lead patient care technician at St. Alphonsus Dialysis Centers in 1998.She moved to the biomedical side, serving as National Director of Technical Services for Liberty Dialysis, LLC. The year after Heather served as NT Prsident, she was named Director of Biomedical Services for Fresenius Medical Care. After working with CDI Health as National Director of Biomedical Services for two years, she returned to Fresenius as the Senior Manager of Water Systems Quality & Service for Vivonic.Heather currently serves as the Secretary-Treasurer for NANT.

Sarah Parker, PhD

Chair, Department of Health Systems and Implementation Science
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

Dr. Sarah Parker is the Chair of Health Systems and Implementation Science at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She has over 15 years of experience applying human factors and industrial/organizational psychology principles to healthcare. Sarah Parker received her BA in psychology from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH and her MA in human factors and applied cognition from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked at Mayo Clinic applying human factors principles to various inpatient quality and safety challenges. She then pursued her PhD at University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Sarah was a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow, focusing on team coordination during trauma resuscitation in the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare at MedStar Health. Her research has been funded by the NIH, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CDC, NSF and many other local and national foundations.

Kristi Ricord, DNP, RN, NEA-BC

National Director, Nursing Services
DaVita

Kristi has held several clinical and operational leadership roles at DaVita, most recently as one of four National Directors of Nursing Services. She is passionate about quality and safety for kidney care patients and teaching, guiding and mentoring nurses. She believes strongly in caring for our clinical teams who care for our patients. Her current research interests include readmission reduction for the on-site dialysis skilled nursing facility patient population, improvements in the nursing workforce health and engagement, and lateral violence in the healthcare workplace.

Tia Sabin, CHT

Manager, Team ACT-Risk Mitigation
DaVita

Tia Sabin is a Risk Mitigation Manager at DaVita, dedicated to patient and teammate safety, and intervening in situations that could create corporate level risk or that could pose a potential threat to ongoing operations. She was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1988 where she started her dialysis career as a Patient Care Technician in January of 1993. Over the past 29 years, she also worked on DaVita’s Clinical Education team as an Education Manager for both dialyzer reuse and in-center hemodialysis, and as a Clinical Specialist at Minntech Renal Systems.

Tia truly believes in the power of networking and building relationships, continuously learning and taking on additional tasks and responsibilities within your scope of practice, relentless dedication to patient safety, and being willing to say something if you see something.

Mathew Thomas

National Technical Service Manager
Nipro Medical Corporation

I started my career in dialysis back in 2006 as a Patient Care Technician at a chronic dialysis clinic in Pennsylvania. I have been through different roles in dialysis including Patient care, technical services and support, technical management, training, consultation; etc. Dialysis stays closer to my heart, and my experience and relationship with patients, patient care teams, technical teams and management teams helped me understand the challenges and needs in the dialysis world. I love being creative and do anything possible to make the end user’s life easier. I am happy when people around me are happy.

Sam and Lacye Trevino

Urine Inspiration

Childhood sweethearts, Sam and Lacye faced the challenge of Sam’s CKD by discovering that Lacye was a perfect kidney donor for Sam. Recently, Lacye developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves. During her recovery, Lacye required acute dialysis for her remaining kidney. With their experiences of dialysis patient, transplant donor and recipient, and primary caregiver for each other, Sam and Lacye know how important dialysis technicians are – and want to help you find your way to being even better.

Emily Watson, MSW, LCSW

Sr. Director of Social Work, Social Work Department
Satellite Healthcare

Emily has been a social worker for 20 years. She has worked various settings including school, outpatient family practice, infant adoptions and for the last 15 years, in dialysis at Satellite Healthcare. Now as the Director of Social Work for Satellite and her focus is to support the work of the social workers in meeting the needs of our patient population. Emily has spent time addressing issues related to access to transplants, addressing patient life and health goals and more recently, understanding more the depths and impacts of Social Determinant of Health on our patient population. On a personal note, she is married with three children, lives the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.

Ryan White, CCHT

PCTIII Preceptor
Fresenius Kidney Care

Ryan is Southwest Regional Vice President of NANT and serves on the PCT Advisory Council and the P.A.L. (Positive Ambassador Listener) committee. She is one of the Co-editors for The Preceptor Pulse, which is Fresenius Kidney Care’s national preceptor newsletter. Some of her clinic roles include Home Therapy Champion and Patient Experience Champion. Ryan is also involved with the Leaders of Tomorrow Mentoring Program, the onboarding focus group, as well as the Social Determinants of Health group. She is currently finishing up her Bachelor’s Degree in Facility and Operations Management with UNT. Ryan loves teaching and sharing the knowledge she has learned over 27 years in the medical field.

Curtis Woods

Director, Technical Services
Fresenius Medical Care North America

As Director of Technical Services for Fresenius Medical Care North America, Curtis is responsible for a nationwide field service organization, technical training program, and a 24/7 technical support call center. Over his career, Curtis has worked in quality, research and development, operations, and project management for new product introductions. He has a passion for cross-functional collaboration and introducing new technologies to simplify service and improve customer experiences.

His current focus is to improve interdepartmental relationships to ensure all projects have a keen focus on design for manufacturability and serviceability. Curtis is also focused on the rapidly changing technologies in healthcare to ensure his service organization remains on the cutting edge.