Current Fellows
The current fellows in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have diverse academic and research interests.
René VanDeVoorde, MD; Third Year Fellow
René grew up in Sebastian, FL. He was an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, majoring in Mathematics and Chemistry. He also attended medical school at Vanderbilt, knowing he wanted to work with children. He spent 4 years in the Navy following medical school as, first, a pediatrics intern at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, then as a General Medical Officer with the Seabees for three years. After spending time in Europe and the South Pacific, he decided to return to academic medicine.
He first came to Cincinnati Children's as a resident in 2000 and was attracted by the reputation of the institution as well as the camaraderie within the center. It was a great experience for him, and he was Chief Resident 2003-4 before starting his fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at Cincinnati Children's.
"What I love best about my job is the relationships that I get to build with families, both in-patient and out-patient that other specialties like Emergency Medicine and Critical Care don't get, but with the challenging issues that those specialties do face."
His areas of interest and research are primarily clinical research in areas of hypertension in dialysis patients, morbidity risks in dialysis patients, and long-term outcomes of therapy in our common disorders like Acute Glomerulonephritis (AGN) and Nephrotic Syndrome. His interests outside of medicine include college basketball and football, basketball, tennis, and historical movies.
Mai Nguyen, MD; Third Year Fellow
Mai grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She attended The University of Texas at Austin, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 1996. She then attended Texas A&M University Health Science Center College of Medicine, where she received her medical degree in 2000. She completed a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Orlando Regional Healthcare in Florida in 2004 and came to Cincinnati Children's to do a combined adult and pediatric nephrology fellowship.
"Cincinnati Children's is a nationally recognized tertiary referral center so it offers the opportunity to see a diverse patient population with both common and rare renal diseases. The resources for both patient care and research purposes are amazing. However, the best thing about Cincinnati Children's is the people. The attendings are great role models, and this creates a terrific training environment."
Under her mentor, Program Director Prasad Devarajan, MD, she is trying to identify biomarkers of acute renal failure with the hope that earlier diagnosis of renal failure will improve patient outcomes. Outside of medicine, she enjoys crossword puzzles, reading, and yoga.
Kimberly Czech, MD, PhD; Second Year Fellow
Kim was born in Illinois and raised in Chicago for most of her life. She attended high school in Scotland for four years before beginning college at Dominican University in Illinois. Here, at age 19, she completed a four year degree in Biology and Chemistry. After completing college, she began a research project at the University of Illinois (Chicago) in xenograft rejection of cellular CNS grafts. After five years, she completed her PhD and published 3 first author publications in the field. She then spent 1 year at Lund University in Sweden researching the immune response to porcine embryonic grafts for the CNS transplantation for Parkinson's Disease. After a successful four years of medical school, she completed 3 years of residency training in Pediatrics. She is currently researching Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis during her Nephrology fellowship.
"The faculty and research in the Division of Nephrology are excellent. This is what attracted me to the program, as well as the excellent facilities and patient care at the hospital."
Outside work, Kim's interests include outdoor sports such as hiking, biking, and skiing when possible. She especially enjoys walking her dog Buddy Guy around the great parks in the Cincinnati area.
Amy Wilson; First Year Fellow
Amy was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. Her family moved to Rogers, Arkansas just before she started high school. She stayed in Arkansas through college - she received her undergraduate degree, a BS in biochemistry, from the University of Arkansas. She went straight to med school from college and moved to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins for those 4 years. She met her husband in college, and they were married just as they were both finishing their degrees. They moved to Cincinnati for her residency and his postdoctoral fellowship.
"The pediatric residency program is what brought me to Cincinnati children's. I'm finishing up my residency now (I have a maternity leave to make up), and have to say that the last three years have been an amazing experience. What I like best about the place is the people and the personality of the institution."
Amy is finishing her residency and caring for her 5 month old daughter. She is not yet working on any specific projects, nor has she yet determined what she wants to work on.
She spends her free time with her husband and daughter. She enjoys traveling and hiking at area parks. She also enjoys cooking and baking, and she is a voracious reader of most types of fiction.
Hsaio Lai, MD; Second Year Fellow
Hsaio is originally from Taipei, Taiwan, but grew up in the United States. The majority of her undergraduate education was completed at the University of Florida in Gainesville where she completed a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering before entering medical school. Her residency training was in combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, following which she came to Cincinnati to pursue a combined Nephrology fellowship.
Hsaio's research interest is in the area of kidney development. She specifically studies the events and signaling leading to the end of nephrogenesis and disruption of these events that may lead to kidney disease or increased susceptibility to disease.
