American Kidney Fund names new VP of Programs

ROCKVILLE, M.D.─Stacey FitzSimmons, MPH, PhD, has been named Vice President of Programs at the American Kidney Fund.

FitzSimmons will lead the American Kidney Fund’s financial assistance programs; public, professional and minority health education programs; and Congressional relations efforts.

“Over a career spanning more than 30 years, Dr. FitzSimmons has provided strong leadership and expert guidance to major private and public institutions, and has made substantive and lasting contributions to the renal field,” said LaVarne A. Burton, president and CEO of the American Kidney Fund. “We are thrilled to welcome her to an already strong team.”

FitzSimmons, an epidemiologist, has worked for federal agencies, state and local health departments, academic institutions and non-profit foundations. These have included the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the NationalCenter for Health Statistics-Centers for Disease Control, the City of Berkeley Public Health Department, CambridgeUniversity, University of California, Berkeley and non-profit organizations such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. 

In addition, FitzSimmons provided national and international leadership for kidney and urologic disease epidemiology from 1987 to 1990, when she served as the Epidemiology Program Director, Division of Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, at the National Institutes of Health. In this position, she developed the United States Renal Data System, the central national source for tracking trends in the incidence, prevalence and financial impact of end-stage renal disease.

From 1990 to 1999, she served as director of Clinical Research at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Most recently, she formed a consulting organization, FitzSimmons and Associates, spending eight years planning and directing epidemiologic and clinical research projects at various non-profit, state and federal institutions and private organizations.

“I am honored to join the American Kidney Fund because it’s an organization that is improving lives in measurable ways on a daily basis—whether it’s providing dialysis patients with grants to help them pay for treatment, or whether it’s providing education and screening to people who are at risk for kidney disease,” said FitzSimmons. “I look forward to building on the existing successes of the American Kidney Fund while identifying new opportunities for outreach.”