Michelle A. Josephson is Professor of Medicine and Surgery and serves as Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation and Program Director of the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship at the University of Chicago. After receiving an MD from the University of Pennsylvania, she completed a medical internship, residency, and nephrology fellowship at the University of Chicago. In 1992, Dr. Josephson came on staff as the first transplant nephrologist at the University of Chicago, founding the institution’s program. Her mission is to improve the care and outcome of the medically complex kidney and kidney-pancreas transplant patient through direct care, education, clinical research, and advocacy.

Dr. Josephson’s clinical work is focused on kidney transplantation, and her research interests revolve around medical complications of kidney transplantation. She has particular interest in the live kidney donor, post-transplant bone disease, BK virus, and pregnancy in the transplant recipient. She is deeply committed to education in the realm of kidney transplantation, established University of Chicago’s Transplant Nephrology Fellowship, and has trained transplant fellows since 2001.

Dr. Josephson was a member of the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) international work group that wrote “Care of the Transplant Recipient Guidelines.” She currently co-chairs KDIGO’s Controversies Conference on “Challenges in Management of the Kidney Allograft: From Decline to Failure.” She served as Councilor-at-large for the American Society of Transplantation (AST) Board. Dr. Josephson was a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s nephrology test writing subcommittee. She has chaired AST’s Cutting Edge of Transplantation Meeting 2020 and 2021 Planning Committee. Currently, Dr, Josephson serves as American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Secretary; in 2022, she will become President-Elect of ASN.