After finishing his medical training at McGill University, Dr. Lemaire moved to Toronto to learn Paediatrics and Nephrology at Toronto’s SickKids before moving to Yale University to pursue a Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Richard Lifton. There, he focused on gene discovery for rare pediatric kidney diseases. This work led to the discovery of two novel forms of atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome. He then returned to SickKids, joining the Division of Nephrology, the Cell Biology program at the SickKids Research Institute, and the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto.

Much of his work in the lab and clinic focuses on rare genetic diseases affecting the kidneys of children, including glomerular, cystic, metabolic and tubular conditions.

Dr. Adeera Levin, FRCPC, is a Professor of Medicine at University of BC and the Executive director of the BC Provincial Renal, an organization which manages and co-ordinates the care of patients with kidney disease in the province of BC. She is the Senior advisor for the Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training Program — KRESCENT Program. She is currently Chair of the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), CKD Work group for the updated guidelines 2023. She is also the lead of the SPOR network Can SOLVE-CKD. Her research and clinical activities focus on chronic kidney disease, co morbidities associated with CKD mechanisms of disease and health outcomes research.

Dr. Levin is active in mentoring young investigators in kidney related research and holds numerous grants for clinical studies. She has received funding from peer reviewed organizations such as CIHR (Canadian Institute of Health Research), The Kidney Foundation of Canada, Michael Smith Foundation, and the Ministry of Health Services BC. In addition, she is the principal investigator on several studies investigator-initiated industry funded grants. She has received many teaching and research awards, and in 2015, was honoured with the Order of Canada.

Leanne Stalker, Ph.D., is the National Director of Research at The Kidney Foundation of Canada, based in Ontario and holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Biomedical Science from McMaster University. Leanne has experience in both the academic research and research management and has a long-standing interest in the integration of research science, clinical development, and patient-facing programs. In the National Director of research role, Leanne provides the support needed to engage, empower, and support the kidney research community, to fulfill The Kidney Foundation’s research strategies and, ultimately, improve outcomes for people with kidney disease. Within KRESCENT, Leanne works with the rest of the leadership team to ensure that trainees receive the high-quality training that KRESCENT is known for and manages the administration of the program, including the peer review selection process, through her role at The Kidney Foundation of Canada.

With 30 years of experiences in Community Development work, Ian Goodall-George brings valuable experience as a member of the Patient Community Advisory Network (PCAN).

Ian is passionate about organ donation for the same reasons he is passionate about communities – when a community comes together to support one another it is life changing. The mental and physical health of a community is dependent on its members and when community members act as a unified force and take care of each other fantastic things can happen. Actions speak louder than words, so Ian stepped forward as a non-directed kidney donor over a decade ago and changed someone’s life through Canadian Blood Services Kidney Paired Exchange Program.

Ian lives in Manitoba and works for the Province of Manitoba as a Regional Consultant with the Community Development branch of the Department of Municipal and Northern Affairs. In his spare time he loves volunteering with any group that will take him and is life-long advocate for organ donation awareness and registration.

Veronica has a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Trent University) and a PhD in Marine Natural Products Chemistry and Molecular Microbiology (University of Prince Edward Island). In 2013, after finishing her studies, marrying her husband, and starting a family, she was diagnosed with underlying IgA nephropathy during a routine pregnancy test.  The diagnosis came as a surprise, as there were no outward symptoms present. However, diabetes runs strongly through her paternal lineage: her father, grandmother, and great-grandmother all have/have had diabetes, the latter of which passed before insulin was invented.

Devastated yet determined, she sought ways to educate herself on the proper care of the body and healthcare of the kidneys. She noticed a marked improvement after making significant changes in her diet and lifestyle and she is a strong advocate for health and nutrition of the body. She is very grateful to the medical community for diagnostic testing, and she is excited to participate as a patient partner for PCAN. She is particularly passionate about improving early kidney detection methods. She lives in rural Prince Edward Island with her husband and two children and works for Dr. Sunny Hartwig. 

Warren’s late wife, Ruth, was diagnosed with kidney disease when she was 12 years old. Ruth and Warren met at university when they were both 21, and two years after they met, Ruth started hemodialysis treatments at The Ottawa Hospital (TOH). They also performed hemodialysis treatments at home in the early to mid-1980s. Ruth had five kidney transplants in her lifetime: three at TOH; and because her situation had become medically complex, her fourth and fifth transplants were referred by TOH to the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). One of Ruth’s transplants was a kidney donated by one of her sisters. Ruth and Warren were together 44 years.

Warren spent 20 years working in the international development field and 20 years assessing the economic and social benefits and impact of public sector science and technology programs. He retired two years before Ruth died to care for her. Since Ruth passed, Warren has been volunteering at The Ottawa Hospital’s Riverside Hemodialysis Unit. Warren is very grateful to be a member of the PCAN as he cannot think of a better way to both honour Ruth and support kidney research.

My name is Anne MacPhee and I am from Halifax Nova Scotia. I became involved with CanSOLVE-CKD in 2014 through my good friend Barb LeGay who was blind from birth and had 4 kidney transplants. We were best friends for 10 years and in her later stages of kidney disease we were very close. She was on the first discovery committee to start CanSOLVE-CKD in 2014 and after her death I was asked to take her place. From 2017 until 2021 I served on various committees with CanSOLVE-CKD. In 2017 I became involved with the KRESCENT program as a reader for the lay summaries for the KRESCENT grants and subsequently became a member of the KRESSCENT Patient Community advisory Network (PCAN), a lay group formed to work with the young investigators.

I have also been very involved in my own area of Nova Scotia with volunteer work over the years with MSSU SPOR support unit. I have also been on several advisory boards over the years with Nova Scotia Health.

In 2020 my husband died suddenly, because of the circumstances of his untimely death I realized the shortfalls in our healthcare system and a need for change. I have written several articles for our local paper and have been on local television and National Radio to promote change. I have witnessed big changes as a result of my efforts. We have a separate transfer unit now for inter hospital transfers and we now have a direct to triage policy when people are brought by ambulance to the hospital. One person can make a difference.

Dr. Nina Jones is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Disease at the University of Guelph, Ontario. She completed Ph.D. studies at the University of Toronto and obtained postdoctoral training at the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute with Dr. Tony Pawson before her recruitment to Guelph in 2006. Her research investigates fundamental mechanisms of cell communication by phosphotyrosine adaptor proteins, and she has made significant contributions in understanding how such signalling pathways become deregulated in prevalent human pathologies such as kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Dr. Jones has received numerous awards throughout her career, including a CIHR-KRESCENT New Investigator Award, an Ontario Early Researcher Award, an NSERC-University Faculty Award, and the John Charles Polanyi Prize, and she is a past member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Dr. Jones also received the inaugural Graduate Student Mentoring award in her College, as well as a Kidney Foundation of Canada Merit Award for Outstanding Community Partner, and she was named a YMCA-YWCA Woman of Distinction. Research in Dr. Jones’s lab is presently supported by CIHR, NSERC, and The Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Dr. Quinn is a Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is a Nephrologist and Clinical Epidemiologist whose research interests include the care of patients with kidney disease, the provision of renal replacement therapies (with a focus on dialysis access), and quality of dialysis care. He received his MD in 1999 and completed specialty training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the University of Calgary in 2004. Dr. Quinn then completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto before joining the University of Calgary in 2009.