Transplant Advisory Committee Member
My love for nephrology started going into my senior year of high school when I learned about the field and dialysis. I was fascinated by the fact that a machine could replace an organ system (to the best of its ability). I then attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (Go Blue!) and continued my pursuit of nephrology with small research projects.
After graduating from U of M, I moved to the Chicago area to attend medical school at The Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University. I completed my Internal Medicine Residency from Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. During residency, I first became involved with the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois by volunteering at a Kidney Mobile screening. I also started attending the NKFI’s Controversies in Nephrology (fellows’ debates) since their inception.
I went on to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UI Health) for general nephrology fellowship and then completed my transplant nephrology fellowship at the University of Chicago under Michelle Josephson. During transplant fellowship, I became more involved with the NKFI and joined their Associate Board.
Since then, I’ve worked as a transplant nephrologist at Advocate Christ Hospital, UI Health and now at Loyola University Medical Center.
With the NKFI, I’ve been a member of their Board of Directors since January 2018 and am the Board Lead for the Patient Programs Committee. I continue my involvement with the NKFI by participating on the expert panel for their Take Charge! Program and actively being involved with the Living with Kidney Disease and Transplantation program with development of topics to speaking as well. I also continue to participate in their mobile screenings.
At Loyola, I’m the Medical Director for Outreach for our transplant program and also newly into the position of Medical Director for the Living Donor program.
![](https://www.kidney.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/divyajainarwindekar.jpg?itok=ASAsB8Us)
Assistant Professor, Transplant Nephrology
Loyola University Medical Center
Maywood, IL