Doctor, Internal Medicine
Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa

Dr Mtingi- Nkonzombi is Nephrologist in Private Practice in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. She is affiliated with the Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences of the Walter Sisulu University in the same province. She is an early career researcher and her work has focused on advocacy for increasing kidney replacement therapy in the Eastern Cape province. She holds a Master’s degree in Vaccinology and is currently completing her MPhil in Nephrology.

Full Professor at Nephrology Division
Federal University of São Paulo
Head of Hospital do Rim, Sao Paulo, Brazil

José Medina Pestana, MD, Ph.D., FRCS, is a Full Professor of Nephrology and Head of the Renal Transplant Division at the Federal University of São Paulo. He is past President of the Brazilian Organ Transplant Association and the "STALyC" in Latin America. He was honored to be the Joseph Murray Harvard Medical School visiting professor in 2012 and a Brazilian Academy of Medicine member. He has worked on developing organ transplantation programs in every Brazilian state and other countries, like Nigeria and Ethiopia. His efforts envisioned the potential to increase the number of kidney transplants, turning the Hospital do Rim, the world's largest public transplant center, performing over 900 transplants annually, with more than 20,000 in the last 25 years. His extensive academic activities include more than 470 peer-reviewed publications and the mentorship of undergraduate students. His last challenge was facing the COVID-19 pandemia, leading the São Paulo state committee to define and apply public health policies.

Transplant Nephrologist, Dalhousie University
Nova Scotia Health, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Pillar 3 Chair, Women in Transplantation

Dr. Amanda Vinson is an associate professor of Nephrology and Kidney Transplant in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She received her medical degree from the University of British Columbia and completed Internal Medicine, Nephrology and a subsequent Kidney Transplant fellowship at Dalhousie University. She went on to complete a Master’s Degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA. Dr. Vinson joined the Dalhousie Division of Nephrology in 2017 as a clinician-researcher. Her research interests include studying predictors of kidney graft and patient survival following transplant, with a focus on strategic matching of kidney donors and recipients to maximize outcomes. She has a special interest in disparities in access to care and the effects of sex and gender in kidney transplantation. She holds regional and national funding to examine barriers to accessing transplant in Nova Scotia and in Canada.