The Carolinas Staff & Board

Clarissa Diamantidis, MD, MHS, FNKF, FASN

Clarissa Jonas Diamantidis, MD, MHS is a Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of General Internal Medicine, Nephrology, and Epidemiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. She received her MD degree from New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY followed by her internal medicine internship and residency training at Duke University. She completed her clinical nephrology training and graduate studies in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Diamantidis’ clinical research interests include health equity in kidney diseases, patient-centered kidney care, and the use of tailored health information technologies. She is an NIH-funded independent investigator. She is the Associate Director for Research at the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity and the Director of the Center for Kidney Health Equity at Wake Forest University. Dr. Diamantidis is a member of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), and the Network of Minority Research Investigators. She is a member of the national NKF Education Committee, the ASN Committee on Ethics and Professional Standards, the NKF Scientific Advisory Board, the editorial board of Contemporary Clinical Trials, and serves as Chair of the Medical Advisory Board for the NKF Serving the Carolinas.

 

Matthew A. Sparks, MD

Matthew A. Sparks, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University and serves as the Program Director for the Nephrology Fellowship. He is the founding Director of the Duke Department of Medicine, Society for Early Education Scholars (SEEDS) educational program for all fellows across the department of medicine. He is also involved in leveraging social media for education. He is a founding faculty member and associate program director of the Nephrology Social Media Collective (NSMC) internship and member of the board of directors of nephrology journal club (NephJC), a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing free online medical education in nephrology. He is co-creator of NephMadness, faculty lead of the Renal Fellow Network, and is an Advisory Board Member of NephSIM. He has been a member of several national committees spanning ASN and AHA. He is the communications editor for ASN Journals Portfolio, JASN, CJASN, and Kidney360. He is a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine Nephrology Board and is on the editorial board of several journals including AJKD, AKHD, CJASN, Kidney Medicine, Kidney360, and ASN Kidney News.

 

Emily Chang, MD

Emily Chang is from Chapel Hill, NC and completed her medical training at UNC-CH School of Medicine. Prior to medicine, she dabbled in bench science, taught middle school and tried her hand at auto mechanics. Since 2010 she has been in nephrology where she found her professional calling. She loves taking care of chronic kidney disease, working to prevent progression and helping patients make difficult decisions if their kidney disease progresses. She also takes care of dialysis patients in Sanford and Burlington, NC and co-directs UNC’s Polycystic Kidney Disease Center of Excellence. Her true passion in life though is her dog, Kimchi, who was featured on the Triangle’s Rescue Brew beer can in 2023 after raising the most money for Beautiful Together Animal Sanctuary and Hope Animal Rescue. Emily and Kimchi can often be seen together on trails, at restaurants, and driving around town.

 

Lazarina Baez Marinez, NP, APRN, FNP-C

Lazarina Baez Marinez, FNP, is an American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) board certified advanced practice nurse. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and has 20 years of healthcare experience. She is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (AHWF) hospitals and specializes in nephrology and kidney transplant care. Her primary work involves providing care for kidney/pancreas pre- and post-transplant patients. Her areas of interest include population focused care and Latino/Hispanic inequities.

 

Dorothy Muench, LCSW, NSW-C, CCTSW

Currently at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Dori Muench has worked in the Nephrology field for 16 years. She has worked as a dialysis social worker, transplant social worker and most recently is serving as the Interim Clinical Manager of the Abdominal Organ Transplant department. She has served on the NKF Serving the Carolinas MAB for many years. She also works with the NKF National office as Chair of the Council of Nephrology Social Workers. She is passionate about addressing disparities in transplant and working with programs to overcome them and ensure each person has an opportunity to be referred for transplant evaluation.

 

Leah Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, CNN-NP, FNKF

Leah Foster Smith received her BSN and MSN-FNP from University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1996 and 2001, respectively. She is board certified as a Family NP and Nephrology NP. She received the highest score on the CNN-NP exam in 2017. Leah is currently the Director of APPs at Metrolina Nephrology Associates, based in Charlotte, NC supervising the largest group of nephrology APPs. Leah is also a fellow of the NKF, clinical consultant with Clear Edge Medical Management, and creator and chair of formalized CKD program managing over 29,000 CKD patients. She is the Chief Education Officer and Co-Founder for Interactive Nephrology. She created a formalized new nephrology APP training program entitled Ready for Rounds & Cleared for Clinic, training more than 300 APPs from across the US since its launch in June 2020. Leah serves in multiple national nephrology leadership roles and serves as the Continuing Education Chair for the NKF Council of Advanced Practice Providers and also served as Chair, Past Chair, and Secretary. She also serves as Chair of the ANNA Conferences Committee and ANNA Education Steering Committee and is a member of the RPA Annual Meeting Conferences Committee and member of the ASN Workforce Training Committee. Leah has been a speaker for more than 20 years at local, state, and national conferences.

 

Palavi Vaidya, MD

Palavi Vaidya is a second-year nephrology fellow at Duke University. She has her BS in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MD from the University of Toledo and completed her Internal Medicine residency at University of Cincinnati. Throughout her career, Palavi has demonstrated leadership through roles in various medical organizations and committees, including the American Medical Association and the National Kidney Foundation. Her work reflects a deep commitment to advancing medical knowledge and improving patient care. Palavi is passionate about fostering strong, lifelong relationships with patients to help them understand and manage their kidney disease.

 

Adit S. Mahale, MD

Adit Mahale has been a transplant Nephrologist for over 20 years. He moved to Charlotte, NC in 2018 and is currently practicing at Metrolina Nephrology Associates. Adit is the medical director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at Atrium Health Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. Kidney transplant has been his passion and believes the best renal replacement option for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease and end stage kidney disease. Adit has been actively involved with the NKF Serving the Carolinas for the last 4 years in North Carolina. Prior to moving to NC, he was a transplant Nephrologist in ND where he was actively involved with the NKF of the Dakotas for almost 10 years.

 

Barbara Gillespie, MD

Dr. Gillespie is a board-certified nephrologist who is currently a Vice President at LabCorp Drug Development (formerly known as Covance CRO, a contract research organization) and the Therapeutic Head of Nephrology, supporting sponsors on the development of new drugs and devices for CKD and ESRD patients. She is on the Board of Directors at the Kidney Health Initiative, a public-private partnership between the FDA and American Society of Nephrology. She is a past Associate Medical Director at a local dialysis unit and completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina and her nephrology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center.

 

Koyal Jain, MD, MPH

Dr. Koyal Jain is a Medical Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and an Associate Professor of Medicine in the division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dr. Jain is a clinician educator and serves as the program director for the nephrology fellowship and the glomerulonephritis and vasculitis fellowships at the University of North Carolina. She also is the co-director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Department of Medicine at UNC and co-directs the first-year medical student "Homeostasis" course at UNC. Dr. Jain clinically specializes in glomerular diseases and is the director of the glomerulonephritis clinic.

 

Keia Sanderson, MD, MSCR

 

Nazish Khan, MD