Vanessa Grubbs facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Assistant Professor
Vanessa Grubbs
|
|
|---|---|
Vanessa Grubbs speaks at Stanford Geriatric Education Center in 2015
|
|
| Born | |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Duke University Duke University School of Medicine |
| Occupation | Nephrologist |
| Years active | 2009 - present |
| Medical career | |
| Institutions | Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital |
| Research | Nephrology |
Vanessa Grubbs is a special kind of doctor called a nephrologist. This means she helps people with their kidneys. She is also a writer. Dr. Grubbs lives in Oakland, California. She teaches and does research at the University of California, San Francisco. She also works at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Early Life and School
Vanessa Grubbs was born in Spring Lake, North Carolina. She went to Duke University for her first college degree. She then stayed at the Duke University School of Medicine to become a doctor.
Her Work and Research
After medical school, Dr. Grubbs trained at the Alameda County Medical Center. She then focused on kidney health during a special training program at UCSF School of Medicine.
In 2012, she received an important award called a K23 Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health. She is also a Harold Amos Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Medical Faculty fellow.
Dr. Grubbs studies how certain things, like diet supplements, can affect people with long-term kidney problems. She also looks at how gum disease (called periodontal disease) might affect how well kidneys work. She is part of the American Society of Nephrology. She helps make decisions about public health policies for kidney care.
Besides her medical work, Dr. Grubbs writes non-fiction books. She also teaches a writing workshop for medical students. In 2018, she was featured on the cover of Renal Life magazine, which is for kidney doctors and patients.
Her Book: Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers
In 2017, Dr. Grubbs published her first book, Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers. It was published by Amistad.
The book tells the story of how she met her husband, Robert Phillips. He had a serious kidney disease. While looking for a kidney for him, Dr. Grubbs learned about differences in how kidneys are given out. She found that African American patients received fewer donated kidneys, even though many needed them.
Her book also shares other challenges she has faced as a woman of color. She even donated one of her own kidneys to her husband before they got engaged! The book also shares stories about the history of kidney treatments over 400 years. Important newspapers like The New York Times and Kirkus Reviews liked her book.
