• Exploring use of Artificial Intelligence in Pre-Clerkship Medical education.    
• Improving Nephrology fellowship education via the development and implementation of Observed Structured Clinical Exams (OSCE) and simulated clinical experiences for training and testing purposes.
• Examining renal effects and long-term renal outcomes of COVID-19 infection.
• Exploring new extracorporeal treatment options for sepsis and COVID-19 as well as deployable dialysis methods (for combat casualty care and/or natural disaster response).
• Evaluating possible serologic markers of renal disease and their effect on prognosis and outcomes in renal glomerular diseases.
• The identification of clinically relevant proteomic and genomic biomarkers and their effect on renal transplant allograft dysfunction.
• Examining optimal treatment strategies for patients with coronary artery disease and chronic kidney disease to decrease their risk for long-term cardiovascular events.

Colonel Maura A. Watson is a graduate of St. Lawrence University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Fine Arts in 1998. She then attended Boston University School of Public Health and graduated with a Master’s of Public Health in 2002 with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. COL Watson began her U.S. Army career in 2003 after receiving the Army Health Professions Scholarship while attending Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. After completing medical school, she was assigned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington D.C. where she completed residency in Internal Medicine in 2009 and fellowship in Nephrology in 2011.

She was assigned to Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Augusta GA where she was the Nephrology Service Chief from 2011-2013. She served in Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan as a Battalion Surgeon with C. Company, 801 st Support Battalion, 4 th Brigade Combat Team, 101 st Airborne Division in 2013 and was the senior medical officer in charge of treatment facility medical services on Forward Operating Base Salerno. She then returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
(WRNMMC) from 2014-2023 where she served as the Nephrology Service Medical Director of Dialysis, Director of Nephrology Subspecialty Education, Assistant Program Director and Program Director for the
National Capital Consortium Nephrology Fellowship. Now assigned to the Uniformed Services University, she is the Director of the Nephrology Division within the Department of Medicine as well as
Pre-clerkship Course Director of Introduction to Clinical Reasoning.

COL Watson is a graduate of the AMEDD Officer Basic, Advanced Course and the Command & General Staff Officer Courses. She is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology and is a
fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Nephrology. She is an author of over 90 peer reviewed research articles and abstracts and is an Associate Professor of Medicine
at the Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD. She has received teaching awards to include Subspecialty Staff Attending of the Year, the MG William L. Moore Jr. Award for Teaching Excellence
in 2012, Uniformed Services University James T. Leonard Teaching Award 2019-2020, WRNMMC Internal Medicine Residency Tri-Service American College of Physicians Chapter Teacher of the Year in
2020 and she was awarded Master Clinician Designation at WRNMMC. She has also been fortunate to have received several awards during her military service to include the Army Medical Department
(AMEDD) “9A” Proficiency Designator for professional excellence and national prominence in medicine, the Bronze Star, Army Commendation Medal (2OLC), Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army
Achievement Medal (1OLC), Armed Forces Service Medal, Army Superior Unit Award, the Meritorious Unit Citation, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the International Security Assistance Force Operation
NATO Medal.