Dr Kumar currently serves as the Program Director of the transplant nephrology fellowship at VCUHS. In this capacity, he mentors two fellows every year to provide clinical and research training. On the research side, in the field of clinical transplant nephrology he and his team have been examining the role of conversion to belatacept to prolong and improve kidney transplant survival in our patients. They have presented their data as oral presentations on prolonging the life of the kidney allograft with either fibrosis or chronic antibody mediated rejection at the 26th International Congress of The Transplantation Society, Hong Kong and at the 2017 American Transplant Congress, Chicago. Awards & Honors • Internal Medicine Award for Excellence in Clinical Leadership, Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University 2020 • Nominated by Peers as an Excellent Clinical Educator, Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University 02/2019 • University Of North Florida Alumni Endowed Scholarship, Jacksonville, Florida 08/1996 • University Of North Florida Alumni Endowed Scholarship, Jacksonville, Florida 08/1995