Inside Duke Medicine
Physician NKF’s first woman president-elect
posted April 13th, 2009
Lynda A. Szczech, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology, has been appointed president-elect of the National Kidney Foundation.
Szczech is the first woman in this role in the foundation’s 60-year history.
“More than 26 million Americans have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and millions more are at risk,” Szczech said. “I hope we can continue to increase awareness of kidney disease and improve patient care. My goal is to make checking kidney function as routine as testing cholesterol levels, in all Americans, but specifically in those who are at highest risk such as people with diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions, such as HIV.”
She earned her undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University, her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College and an MSCE in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.