Dr. Ornt is a native of Rochester, NY and a graduate of Colgate University. He earned his MD degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and pursued training in internal medicine as a resident at the University of Vermont. As a nephrology fellow at the University of Michigan, he was awarded a National Kidney Foundation research fellowship completing investigation in potassium homeostasis, which yielded a first-author publication in the American Journal of Physiology. He became a member of the faculty in the department of medicine at the University of Rochester where he continued his career as a clinician and investigator winning a national investigator research award from the NIH and an American Heart Association national grant-in-aid as a junior faculty.

As an active clinician, Dr. Ornt’s research career transitioned to clinical research as he became PI for the Rochester Center for the NIDDK/NIH randomized study in hemodialysis outcomes (HEMO Trial); primary results published in the New England Journal of Medicine. His clinical research experience was key to his leadership role as associate program director for the NIH[1]funded clinical research center at the University of Rochester and his participation on NIH scientific review committees. His research efforts were always simultaneously completed while maintaining a busy clinical practice in renal disease both adult and pediatric as well as renal transplantation. He has participated in publishing over seventy peer reviewed papers and book chapters.

Dr. Ornt is a dedicated educator in undergraduate medical education, graduate training and specialty fellowships in nephrology. This teaching experience has been in basic science as well as clinical medicine. He actively participated in the development of new curriculum while in Rochester, efforts that were recognized as he became vice dean for education and academic affairs at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. While vice dean he led the development of a new, nationally recognized curriculum in medical education. This role sparked his broader interest in education and program development, leading him to pursue and secure the position of vice president and founding dean for the College of Health Sciences and Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology, a position he held for over eight years. During his tenure as dean he created a named school through a generous gift from the Wegman Family Foundation which established the Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition within the college. He recruited several nationally recognized clinical psychologist faculty members who have established a post-graduate training program in psychology (APA accredited) and created a funded program to train additional psychologists through HRSA. He is presently professor of health sciences and pursuing several research projects during a twelve-month sabbatical. He also maintains his clinical appointment as a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester