President Diane Wish

Diane Wish is the co-founder and longtime president of the Ohio Renal Association, whose members operate 326 local outpatient dialysis clinics throughout Ohio and serve an estimated 18,000 Ohioans who rely on their dialysis services to live.

Wish is also CEO of the nonprofit The Centers for Dialysis Care (CDC), a position she’s held since 1983. CDC operates 17 dialysis clinics throughout Northeast Ohio.

Wish, a registered nurse, has spent the bulk of her career as a nephrology nurse and administrator and is a recognized expert in the field.

After obtaining her nursing degree, Wish spent three years as a coronary intensive care nurse in Kettering, OH and Columbus, OH before becoming head nurse at the Central Ohio Dialysis Center. During her tenure there, she was promoted to Director of Nursing, and Administrator.

In 1983, Wish moved to Cleveland and was named President & CEO of CDC, headquartered in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, OH.  With 17 clinics, CDC is the largest provider of dialysis treatment in Northeast Ohio. Wish stepped down as President in July 2015 as part of the non-profit’s succession plan but retains her role as CEO.

Wish is an expert in dialysis treatment – both in patient care and in the administrative side of treatment. She authored a 2009 article for the Nephrology Nursing Journal titled Revisions in the End Stage Renal Disease Prospective Payment System: Implications for Nephrology Nurses. Wish was recognized with the 2002 National Renal Administrator Association Mark Zawiski Memorial Award for outstanding leadership, and in 1989 with the Outstanding Nephrology Professional of the Year award from The Renal Network, ESRD Network 9.

In addition to her role as president of the Ohio Renal Association, Wish maintains affiliations with a number of professional organizations. She is a two-time past president of the National Renal Administrator Association (NRAA), and a current board member of the NRAA Renal Services Exchange Board, and a Board member of Kidney Care Partners, Kidney Care Council, Non-Profit Kidney Care Alliance, and University Circle, Inc. She also served in various capacities for End State Renal Disease Networks 22 and 9.

Wish serves her community in a volunteer capacity as a current board member of the Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program of Cleveland, the Kidney Foundation of Ohio where she is a past president. She is a previous board member of the National Kidney Foundation of Central Ohio and also served on the Allocation Committee for the United Way of Cleveland.

Wish received her nursing degree from the Kettering College of Medical Arts, a bachelor’s in Business Administration from Ohio Dominican University, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.