Joanna Neumann was born and raised in Hong Kong, where she became a registered nurse in 1983. Getting into a healthcare specialty in Hong Kong was highly competitive and very difficult. Most people work 10 to 15 years before receiving an offer to train in a specialty.

Joanna was resting after a shift in her second year as a registered nurse when her nursing director called.

“She asked if I wanted to start a nephrology program,” Joanna said. “I didn’t even know what nephrology was, but thirty minutes later, I was back in the hospital to start training.”

What Joanna discovered was a love and fascination for kidney care.

“I once overheard a patient say that no one saw them as a whole person,” she said. “In nephrology, we have to treat the whole person. The kidneys affect the heart. Diabetes and high blood pressure affect the kidneys. Everything is interconnected.”

In 1991, Joanna was ready for her next adventure–moving to the US. She got a job with a healthcare company quickly but faced a bit of a learning curve.

“In Hong Kong, nursing was very hierarchical. You did what the doctor said. In the U.S., I learned to collaborate with physicians and patients to build care plans together. It was very empowering. I also think it improves the quality of care patients in the U.S. get.”

With this new job, Joanna was also able to take on many different roles and continue learning.

“I worked in dialysis centers. I was a home dialysis manager, helping people learn home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis,” she said. “I helped develop education, better compliance, policy, and regulatory quality.”

Joanna also gave presentations and volunteered with organizations like the National Kidney Foundation.

“My very first volunteer event with NKF was KEEP Healthy, a free kidney disease screening program. It was freezing, but people lined up anyway,” she said. “I knew from that moment on I wanted to keep volunteering with NKF.”

Today, she continues volunteering at local church events and community programs, distributing educational materials and encouraging people to visit the NKF website to learn more.

“Education is critical. Even if they’re not ready to hear it that day, maybe one day they’ll pull out that flyer and say, ‘Let me take a look,” Joanna said. “Every single opportunity counts.”

Joanna also loves teaching professionals just as much as patients.

“If we can build a good structure to train nurses and empower them, they can ultimately take better care of patients,” she said, “To me, that’s joy.”

Joanna says that NKF’s mission, education, prevention, and patient support align with everything she believes in.

“We at NKF do great things,” Joanna said. “I treasure that.”