Anne Black

Anne Black is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois (NKFI). She has held this position since October, 2013.

Anne oversees all of the program and fundraising related activities of the organization as well as general operations, fiscal responsibility, and management of staff. Anne has been with the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois since January, 2002 and has more than 14 years of fundraising, design and marketing experience.

Anne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Olaf College. She enjoys reading and spending time with her family, which includes her husband and their very active seven year old twin daughters.

Maria Olivero

Maria Olivero is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois (NKFI). NKFI is a major voluntary health organization that seeks to prevent kidney and urinary tract diseases, improve the health and well-being of individuals and families affected by these diseases, and increase the availability of all organs for transplantation.

In her role, Ms. Olivero assists the KidneyMobile Program in the Hispanic community as well as the lead on the Follow-up portion of the KidneyMobile program. This is a custom mobile exhibit providing free prevention education and health screenings for high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic kidney disease throughout Illinois. Ms. Olivero works with partners in the Hispanic community and provides education on kidney disease in Spanish to patients, family and community members. Ms. Olivero takes on the lead on patient follow-up for Spanish speakers and handles all bi-lingual inquiries.

Ms. Olivero holds a bachelor’s degree in Board of Governors and Spanish. Additionally, Ms. Olivero holds a certification as a Medical Interpreter form Cross-Cultural Interpreting Service. Ms. Olivero was born in Utuado, Puerto Rico in the Taíno language meaning “valley surrounding of mountains” but has been in Chicago for more than 20 years.

Jennifer Chaput

Jennifer Chaput is the Manager of Communications for the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois (NKFI). In her role, Ms. Chaput is responsible for creating and executing overall communications and marketing materials to increase visibility of the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois amongst all audiences. She also plans and executes educational programs for transplant candidates, recipients, donors and their families.

Ms. Chaput holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, as well as a Master of Science from the DePaul University School of Public Service.

Joe Feinglass, PhD

Research Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, and Center for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Feinglass is a health services researcher with a degree in Public Policy Analysis. He has over 20 years of experience in health policy, quality improvement, health disparities, medical informatics, patient safety, and social epidemiology research.

Karina Vera

Karina Vera is a Research Study Coordinator in the Center for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Karina is responsible for the financial administration, data collection and intervention administration processes, and data entry involved in the randomized controlled trial of the Infórmate website. She has had over five years of recruitment experience in the Hispanic/Latino community for different health research studies.

Amy Disharoon, MPH

Amy Disharoon is a Research Study Coordinator in the Center for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Amy is a health scientist with a Master's degree in public health, specializing in Community Health. Amy currently assists on projects designed to improve patients' and families' knowledge and informed consent for organ donation and transplantation. Amy has over 5 years of experience working at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), where she facilitated the placement of organs between donors and patients.

Nicole Sisen, CHES, MPH

Nicole Sisen is the former Director of Community Health Education for the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois (NKFI).

In her role, Nicole led the KidneyMobile® Program. This is a custom mobile exhibit providing free prevention education and health screenings for high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic kidney disease throughout Illinois. Nicole worked collaboratively with donation and transplantation professionals, nurses and senior administrators in the planning, design, implementation, evaluation and maintenance of educational and quality assurance of more than 80 programs, professional conferences and events per year.

Nicole holds a bachelor's degree in Health and Sport Studies (Health Promotion) from the University of Iowa. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist as through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. She completed a master’s degree in Health Education (Health Promotion) from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Nicole is now a Senior Manager for Primary Care Systems at American Cancer Society.

Lanty O'Connor, BA

Program Manager, Northwestern Simulation; Co-Director of Medical Education, Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Mr. O'Connor's work focuses on performance improvement, mastery learning, and healthcare quality. He has contributed to research projects in medical education, e-learning, emergency medicine, and athletics.