Paul T Conway

Mr. Conway is Chair of Policy & Global Affairs, and Immediate Past President, of the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the largest kidney patient organization in the USA. He is also a founder and Co-Chair of the AAKP Annual Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations, a partnership with the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and has served as an external expert to the WHO on persons living with non-communicable diseases. He has advanced the principles of patient consumer care choice, patient-centered care and greater use of patient insight data in research and innovation across the federal government and, globally, before the United Nations, the European Parliament and the World Health Organization. He has managed kidney disease for 41 years, including 3 on peritoneal dialysis and, for the past 24, with a transplant. He was transplanted in 1997 at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University (MCV/VCU) Hume-Lee Transplant Center. His career includes posts under 4 presidents, 3 Commonwealth of Virginia governors and in support of 5 presidential transitions. His federal awards include the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary's Silver Medal for exceptionally meritorious service to America. In 2022, he was named to the Presidential Rank Review Board to evaluate senior US Civil Service senior executives for White House and presidential recognition. His previous federal posts are: Chief of Staff, US Department of Labor; Chief of Staff, US Office of Personnel Management; Interim Federal Coordinator and Chief of Staff, Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, US DHS; Acting Deputy Executive Director, National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC); Special Assistant, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and Confidential Assistant at the US Department of Education. In Virginia, he served as Deputy Secretary of Health & Human Resources and on the Board of Health Professions and the Secure Commonwealth Panel (homeland security). He has received both the American Society of Nephrology and the AAKP President's Medal for policy advocacy before Congress and White House and a 2022 President's Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteer service to the kidney community. His current roles are: Chair, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Patient Engagement Advisory Committee (PEAC); Board, Kidney Health Initiative (KHI); External Expert Panel, Kidney Precision Medicine Program (KPMP), National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH/NIDDK); Contract Board, US Renal Data System (USRDS); Patient Voice Editor, Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN); Nephrology Specialty Board, American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM); Patient Advisory Board, University of Washington Kidney Research Institute (KRI) and Center for Dialysis Innovations (CDI).