Memories of Dori Schatell
Dori Schatell, our Executive Director, colleague, and friend, passed away on October 8, 2026. Her loss is deeply personal to our MEI team and to the kidney community she cared so passionately about.
Here on KidneyViews, we want to remember both the advocate whose work touched so many lives and the person we were so fortunate to know. Each of us carries our own memories and stories from the years we shared with Dori.
The 28 years we shared, both professionally and personally, had a lasting impact on the course of my life. We had a great working rhythm—the kind that only comes from decades of trust, alignment, and mutual respect. But our connection went far beyond the walls of the MEI office. We traveled to national kidney meetings across the U.S., sharing countless adventures along the way. We stayed in some wonderful—and some really not-so-wonderful—Airbnbs, explored the unique art and culture of each city, and, because Dori was a true foodie at heart, always made time to seek out the best food wherever we went. Her big smile, confident voice, knack for firing off an email in record time, and the way she would tell me that Maryland gets Wisconsin's "used weather" are just a few of the countless memories I will always treasure.
And because she was such a "Swiftie," I feel it is important to add:
Taylor Swift sang a line in The Fate of Ophelia that captures how I am holding onto her right now: "'Tis locked inside my memory / And only you possess the key." The jokes, the shared meals, the chaotic travel days, and the triumphs we shared over 28 years are locked safely away in my heart forever.
I absolutely hate writing this.
Dori told me I was a very special unicorn and that these were valuable skills. Then, on my very first day at MEI, she surprised everyone (including me, and not in a good way!) by announcing that I would lead the enormous project of creating the 7th edition of the Core Curriculum for the Dialysis Technician. It was like throwing a baby into the ocean. The book was on a tight deadline, but we made it through, and we’re all proud of it. More importantly (the "bigger view," as Dori would say) is that I know how to do the 8th edition without her because she made me work so hard on the 7th.
This story only makes sense if you knew Dori. She said it would work out fine. She said I’d fit. She said I’d make a good Program Director because I intuitively liked to direct the program. It all sounds a little crazy, but what Dori says goes, because Dori is magic and everyone knows that. Most of my professional life since 2022 has followed a similar cadence.
I knew when Dori hired me that she had been living with cancer for a couple of years. She knew her runway was shorter than she wanted it to be. She told me so. And she lived accordingly.
We really did have so much fun working together. We once took the iconic Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight Amtrak trains from San Diego to San Francisco after a business trip and flew home from there. I had never seen the Pacific Ocean before, and she had never seen it by train. It was beautiful. I said at the time that I was glad we took that train before an earthquake put the tracks into the ocean, but what I really meant was that I got to do it with Dori while she was still here.
She taught me so much and made sure I paid attention to her lessons. She drilled the history of nephrology into my head and used every opportunity (and all of her considerable clout) to introduce me to the still-living pioneers who shaped the field. She wanted me to sit with them, listen to their stories, ask questions, and gain a broad understanding of how we got here.
Dori believed that history mattered because it informs everything we do next. She told me I needed to become a holder of that history so I could advocate for the present and the future. We have lost a lot of legends in recent years, both patients and professionals. We name them and talk about them often in this field because we are a niche group and we honor our heroes.
I did not fully appreciate then how much she was preparing me to move forward in a future without her. I do now. At least, I am starting to. I have no choice but to move forward because that’s why I’m here in the first place. She also threatened to haunt me if I didn’t. Our work matters and therefore, we have no choice but to keep going. If not us, then who?
I’m picking another Taylor Swift quote to close my tribute with, "Long live all the mountains we moved, I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you."
Comments
Dawn Bates
Oct 22, 2026 6:36 PM
Kamal D Shah
Oct 18, 2026 12:26 PM
So, HDC was my source of all information on nocturnal home dialysis. There was a support group like the internet forums of those days where you posted questions and people would answer. The advantage of forums over Facebook Groups (as Dr. John Agar would repeatedly point out) was that it was much easier to search for older questions that others have posted to see if your question was already answered.
Most of what I learnt about nocturnal home dialysis was on HDC. Folks there were a very close-knit community, a family, that went out of their way to help people they had never met, people half way around the world from very disparate backgrounds and circumstances, all bound by one common thread - the urge for more freedom in their journey with kidney failure. All thanks to Dori Schatell.
Dori went on to create a Facebook Group for HDC which became hugely popular among those looking for information and support in their home dialysis journey.
I had the privilege of working closely with Dori (along with another passionate patient advocate, Paul Bennett) in a working group that wrote a peer-reviewed journal manuscript on the Psychosocial aspects of Home Hemodialysis. We three met in 2015 in Chicago as part of the Global Forum for Home Hemodialysis - a group of doctors, nurses and patient advocates who worked on improving awareness and access about home dialysis.
I remember her objecting to the use of the phrase 'non-compliant patient' and she would say what people call non-compliance is truly the care team's problem and they are not measuring up to what the patient needs!
I used to reach out to her by email or a post on the Facebook HDC group for problems I was having with my home dialysis and she would promptly respond. Her book, "Core Curriculum for the Dialysis Technicians" is brilliantly written and emphasis keeping the patient at the centre of the universe, something that NephroPlus truly espouses.
I will truly miss Dori.
Sue Zwicker
Oct 17, 2026 12:10 PM
To your family, peace & the love she had for you all, and hugs from me to you❤️
Sue