About the Transplant - Nephrology Fellowship Program

The renal transplant fellowship offered by the Division of Nephrology is ACGME accredited and certified by the American Society of Transplantation (AST)/American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS). Our transplant program, the largest in the region, performs over 300 kidney transplants every year. A wide variety of transplant related therapies including kidney exchange, desensitization, and HIV and HCV positive kidney transplants are performed. 

The Virginia Commonwealth University Transplant Nephrology Fellowship Program provides an opportunity to pursue advanced training in clinical transplant nephrology and to undertake training in basic science research or clinical research. The program is designed for trainees who wish to receive outstanding educational training in order to pursue a career in either academic medicine or private practice.

The fellowship involves one year of training that integrates the six core competencies (patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based learning). Each fellow will participate in clinical training, teaching and scholarly activities. The training experience includes involvement in all aspects of pre-transplant care including list management, kidney donor evaluations and assessment and acceptance of deceased donor organs, as well as post-transplant care including performing biopsies and management of immunosuppression. Fellows will participate in the evaluation and management of combined heart/kidney, pancreas/kidney and liver/kidney transplant patients. The fellows get hands-on training in immunology through rotations in the HLA lab and transplant kidney biopsy assessments with pathology. Dedicated teaching in transplant infectious disease is also provided. Under faculty mentorship, each fellow has the opportunity to participate in at least one research project and to attend one of the national transplant conferences as well. Our sites of practice include in-patient and continuity clinics at VCUHS.

After one year of clinical training, our goal is for each fellow to have confidence in independently evaluating and managing patients with a wide variety of kidney transplant issues.

Vacation Time 
Each fellow has four weeks of vacation per year. 

Night Coverage
Nephrology fellows do not take any in-house call. Nighttime at-home call is distributed amongst transplant and general nephrology fellows throughout the year. The fellows provide at-home call for urgent clinical care questions and consults. Fellows come in for emergent consults, staffed with the on-call attending physician. Additionally, the attending physician provides back-up, supervision, and escalation for the fellow on-call. A fatigue policy is in place whereas fellows should expect coverage by a colleague or attending if they are too fatigued to work following a call. 

Weekend Coverage
Fellows cover VCU Hospital for approximately 6 weekends per year. When on call over a weekend, the fellows see all new consults at VCU during the day, which are staffed with the attending physicians on call. Additionally, the weekend on-call fellow rounds with the attending physician on existing consults.

GME Resident & Fellow Well-Being
Graduate Medical Education training is not easy. With the GME Physician Well-being program, we first and foremost assert our commitment to your well-being, resilience and all aspects of a healthy lifestyle. VCU and VCU Health are dedicated to ensuring that you have the tools you need to be your best.  (Learn more)

All About VCU, VCUHealth, and RVA
First things first. We fondly refer to Richmond as RVA.  People love this city because it’s awesome. And Virginia Commonwealth University is in the middle of it all.    Learn more about VCU, VCUHealth, and RVA!

• Akshay Athreya, MD - Fellowship Associate Program Director 
• Ambreen Azhar, MBBS
• Gaurav Gupta, MD - Division Chief
• Layla Kamal, MD - Fellowship Program Director
• Dhiren Kumar, MD
• Irfan Moinuddin, MBBS
• Niveditha Girimaji Satishchandra, MD 

Class of 2026

Raja Boddepalli, MD 
Medical School:  Mamata Medical College
Residency:  Albert Einstein Medical Center
Fellowship: Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

Eligibility requirements

The applicant should be an MD with three or more years of Internal Medicine residency training in an ACGME-accredited training program. A pass on USMLE Step 3 is a mandatory prerequisite for acceptance as a fellow.

Our institution can sponsor J-1 visas. 

Required information:

• Application
• Curriculum Vitae
• USMLE score reports
• Medical school transcripts
• A personal statement
• 4 letters of recommendation, including one from your program director
• A photograph

If applicable, please provide the following:

• ECFMG certificate
• Medical School Diploma (with translation if necessary) 

Application Timeline

Interview dates for the 2026 Interview Season will be starting with August 1, 2026 and ending January 1, 2026.

Sample interview itinerary:

10:45 – Arrival
11:00 – 11:30 – Interview
11:30 – 12:00 – Interview/Tour with fellow
12:00 – 12:30 – Interview
12:30 – 01:30 – Transplant Conference
01:30 – 02:00 – Program Overview and Interview with PD
02:00 – 02:30 – Interview
02:30 – 03:00 – Interview
03:00 – 03:30 – Interview – Fellow
03:30 – 04:00 – Wrap up, Questions with PD

Attention:  In support of our applicants, we will be flexible in providing virtual and on-site fellowship interview opportunities.  We understand that applicants may have restrictions on travel during this time.  Our interview schedule may change as we approach the late summer and fall. 

Program Director

Layla Kamal, MD
Email: layla.kamal@vcuhealth.org

Fellowship Coordinator

Tiffany Wilkins, CCMA
VCU School of Medicine
Dept of Internal Medicine
Box 980509
Richmond, VA 23298-0509 
Phone: (804) 828-9726
Email: imfellowships@vcuhealth.org

For training verification requests, please visit us at https://intmed.vcu.edu/education/verification/