Donald E. Wesson

Donald E. Wesson, MD, MBA, FACP, FASN, currently serves as President of the Baylor Scott & White Health and Wellness Center at Juanita J. Craft Recreation Center, as well as Senior Vice President of Baylor Scott & White Weight Management Services. In this role, Dr. Wesson is an advocate for improving the health of communities through focused, data driven population health initiatives. Dr. Wesson is a thought-leader in academic medicine and an internationally recognized researcher in kidney acidifying mechanisms. He has translated his basic science studies to clinical studies examining the role of nutrition in population health and the kidney-protective benefit of nutrition. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers regarding kidney physiology, more than a dozen books about kidney disease and hypertension, and many other papers on cigarette smoking and its effects on kidneys. Previously he was Professor of Medicine and Vice Dean of Texas A&M University College of Medicine in Temple, Texas. His academic career includes roles as the S.C. Arnett Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine and Physiology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center; Associate Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where he was Assistant Chief of the Nephrology Section at the Houston VA Hospital. He has received multiple teaching awards while at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Dr. Wesson received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He attended Washington University School of Medicine and earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine (Houston), completed his Internal Medicine residency and internship at Baylor College of Medicine, and his nephrology research fellowship at the University of Illinois (Chicago). He earned his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Texas (Austin). Dr. Wesson was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) in 2007 after serving on a number of ASN committees since 1996. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and its Foundation since 2001 and is past Chair of the ABIM Board of Directors (2007- 2008) and the ABIM Foundation (2012-2014). He has also held multiple positions within the National Kidney Foundation.