Barbara Gillespie

Dr. Barbara Gillespie serves as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, while concurrently holding the position of Vice President and Therapeutic Head of Nephrology at Fortrea (formerly Labcorp Drug Development). Her career bridges academic medicine and pharmaceutical development, focusing on advancing treatments for kidney disease patients.

Her educational background includes a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MMS from MCP Hahnemann University, and an MD from Hahnemann/Drexel School of Medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina and her nephrology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Gillespie's research interests focus on nephrology clinical trials, glomerular diseases, chronic kidney disease management, and therapeutic development for kidney disorders. Her work emphasizes innovative clinical trial design and endpoints for kidney disease treatments, particularly in membranous nephropathy and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. She has contributed significantly to establishing core outcome measures for kidney disease clinical trials.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on designing clinical trials for kidney diseases, with particular attention to membranous nephropathy in the anti-PLA2R era and proteinuria as an endpoint in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis trials. Her work spans from foundational research on anemia management in chronic kidney disease to cutting-edge clinical trial methodology for novel kidney disease treatments.

Dr. Gillespie holds leadership positions including:

• Board of Directors at NephCure
• Board of Directors at the Kidney Health Initiative (KHI)
• Steering Committee for APOL1 Mediated Kidney Diseases workgroup
• Co-Chair for NKF/FDA Workshop on Treatments for Early Stages of Common CKD
• Steering Committee for NKF CKD Patient Registry

She actively serves on multiple KHI workgroups including Surrogate Endpoints for IgA Nephropathy/FSGS/C3G, Pediatric IgAN, and Barriers to CKD patient participation in CV Trials. Her advisory roles extend to the NephCure Membranous Nephropathy Scientific Workshop, NKF/FDA Workshop on Renal Endpoints, SGLT2-I research, and UNC's PCORI grant on Building Research Capacity in Dialysis. She also participates in the SONG Initiative and serves on the Regional Medical Advisory Board for NKF.