WIT Fellowship Award 2022-2024

Women in Transplantation, in collaboration with One Lambda Thermo Fisher and Sanofi,
is delighted to announce the winners of the WIT Fellowship Award 2022-2024.

  • Here’s what Dr. Roslyn Mannon, WIT Chair, has to say about the Fellowship Award:

    ‘I'm delighted to have established the Women in Transplantation research awards program. This is an opportunity to train the next generation in an area of significance and impact. I appreciate our sponsors having the same faith and commitment to innovation.’

One Lambda Thermo Fisher Fellowship Award Winner

  • Dr. Emily Leven
    Mount Sinai, New York City

    Project Title:
    Sex-based differences in outcomes of patients requiring simultaneous liver kidney transplantation

    Dr. Emily Leven completed medical school at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, followed by internal medicine residency and chief residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, where she continues her training as a gastroenterology fellow. Her previous scholarly projects have included both clinical research in hepatology and quality improvement at a hospital and health system level. Her work in quality highlighted the importance of understanding a given problem from every angle, and developing solutions informed by root causes. This has translated into several projects attempting to measure the impact of physician interventions on patient outcomes ranging from attempts at improving medication adherence, application of risk stratification tools into novel clinical contexts, and introduction of new interdisciplinary communication tools to prevent adverse outcomes after interhospital transfer of patients undergoing liver transplant evaluation. It is her goal to identify and understand the consequences of organ allocation policy changes and how they may create differential access to transplantation for women.

    Dr. Leven is mentored by Dr. Lauren Grinspan, Mount Sinai, New York

    Dr. Lauren Grinspan is an assistant professor of medicine and liver diseases, specializing in internal medicine and gastroenterology at Mount Sinai.

Sanofi Fellowship Award Winner

  • Dr. Brenda Rosales
    University of Sydney, Australia

    Project Title
    The impact of sex and gender on equity of access to cancer care for kidney transplant recipients

    Dr Rosales is a Post-doctoral Research Assistant at the University of Sydney with a growing track record in highly translational health research in cancer and kidney transplantation. Her educational background in medical science, and she worked in industry as a Tissue Typing Scientist in the NSW Transplantation and Immunogenetics Services. Following an interest in equity and healthcare delivery she went on to complete a Master of Public Health at the University of Sydney. Dr Rosales has worked internationally in cancer clinical trials, and recently completed a PhD on the impact of cancer in kidney transplant recipients, including identifying sex and gender differences in outcomes under the supervision of Prof Angela Webster and Prof Kate Wyburn at The University of Sydney. Her PhD projects largely involved coordination of data-linkage studies and analysis of complex linked health administrative and clinical data. Her work has informed clinical practice guidelines in keratinocyte cancer management and deceased organ donor acceptance criteria. Her post-doctoral work aims to bring together my diverse research and project management skills and experience to investigate inequities in health service delivery in cancer and transplantation and create real world change.

    Of her WIT Sanofi Fellowship Award, Dr Rosales had to say:
    “It is a huge honour and privilege to have been awarded the Sanofi Women in Transplantation Fellowship. I look forwarded to collaborating with so many leaders in transplantation to better understand how sex and gender impacts cancer care for kidney transplant recipients and generate real-world evidence on where we can provide more equitable health care.”

    Dr. Rosales is mentored by Dr. Angela Webster, University of Sydney.

    Dr. Angela Webster is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. She is a Clinical Epidemiologist, Nephrologist and Transplant Physician, having trained in England, Scotland and Australia. She studied Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Sydney, and was awarded a PhD in 2006. She now splits her time working as Professor in Clinical Epidemiology in the Sydney School of Public Health, Director of Evidence Integration at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, and as a Senior Staff Specialist in Renal Medicine and Transplantation at Westmead Hospital. International roles include funding arbiter for Cochrane 2015-2020, responsible for overseeing resolution of financial and professional conflicts of interest with authors, peer reviewers and editors, as part of the broader landscape of research integrity. From 2007-2015 she was deputy coordinating editor of the Cochrane Kidney and Transplant, where she remains an Editor. She is on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, and was previously an associate editor for Transplantation. She is a former member of the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) executive committee. KDIGO is an independent global organization producing international clinical practice guidelines, guideline updates and clinical controversies conferences for whom the executive committee provides strategic direction. Nationally, Angela is the Executive Officer of the Australian and New Zealand Islet and Pancreas Transplant Registry, and former member of the New South Wales Transplant Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Gender Equity and Diversity committee and former Chair of the Scientific Program and Education Committee (SPEC) of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology, and sits on the council of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Women in Transplantation wish Dr. Leven and Dr. Rosales every success with their research projects!