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Paul Conway

Biography

Mr. Conway is Chair of Policy and Global Affairs, and Immediate Past President, of the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the nation’s largest kidney patient organization. He also serves as the Co-Chair of the AAKP Annual Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations, a strategic partnership with The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He has managed kidney disease for forty-years, including nearly three years on home dialysis and, for the past twenty-three years, as a kidney transplant recipient. He is a policy and communications professional with several decades of experience in White House and Cabinet-wide policy implementation, management, and communications. His public service career includes posts under three U.S. presidents, three Virginia governors and in support of five presidential transitions as well as multiple recognitions, including the Department of Homeland Security Secretary’s Silver Medal for exceptionally meritorious service to DHS and America.

As a national kidney policy advocate, he is a recipient of the American Society of Nephrology President’s Medal and the AAKP President’s Medal for his efforts before the U.S. Congress and The White House. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, he has worked closely with federal agencies on high-risk patient education and is a participant in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kidney-COVID Public-Private Workgroup. His current federal engagement includes roles as: Chair of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Patient Engagement Advisory Committee (PEAC) for medical device development; External Expert Panel member for the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH/NIDDK) Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP); liaison to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Health Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC); and reviewer for the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (DOD/CDMRP). He has served as the chair or co-chair of multiple dialysis-related Technical Evaluation Panels for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Since 2017, he has served on successive Presidential Rank Review Boards to recommend top Senior Executive Service members of the U.S. Civil Service to the White House for consideration for presidential recognition.

As a kidney advocate, Mr. Conway serves as: Patient Voice Editor for the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN); member of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Nephrology Specialty Board; member of the Board of Directors’ Kidney Health Initiative (KHI); patient advisory board member for the University of Washington’s Center for Dialysis Innovation (CDI); and has served as a project team member for the FDA/Duke University Clinical Trial Transformation Initiative (CTTI) His previous federal posts include: Acting Federal Coordinator and Chief of Staff for the post-Katrina Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding at the Department of Homeland Security; Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor; Chief of Staff of the Office of Personnel Management; Special Assistant in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; and Confidential Assistant at the Department of Education. In Virginia, Conway has served as: Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources; member of the Secure Commonwealth Panel for homeland security; and a member of the Board of Health Professions for medical licensing.