PeDRA Session at SID

Dr. Coughlin is the Director of the Section of Pediatric Dermatology and Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Her practice is general pediatric dermatology, but she specializes in treating patients with pigmented skin lesions and immunosuppressed patients. She directs the Pediatric Melanoma and Nevus Clinic, part of Siteman Kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She also holds a joint clinic with pediatric neuro-oncology caring for children with skin eruptions due to cancer therapies. She is Chair of the Skin Tumors and Reactions to Cancer therapies research group and the Outcomes Committee for the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance. She is the Treasurer for the International immunosuppression and Transplant Skin Cancer Collaborative. She enjoys leading an Art and Medicine class for first year medical students. 

Dr. Harris is Chair of Dermatology, Director of the Autoimmune Therapeutics Institute, and Director of the Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center at UMass Medical School. He is a dermatologist and physician-scientist, caring for patients in a vitiligo specialty clinic and running a research laboratory focused on understanding disease pathogenesis and developing new treatments. His group integrates basic, translational, and clinical research strategies to accomplish this. As a result, early clinical trials in vitiligo have shown success. Dr. Harris founded Villaris Therapeutics, whose focus is to develop an effective, long-lasting treatment for vitiligo, as well as NIRA Biosciences, Aldena Therapeutics, and Vimela Therapeutics, companies focused on inflammatory skin diseases.

Dr. Paller is the Walter J. Hamlin Professor and Chair of Dermatology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center (SBDRC) at Northwestern. She served as Chief of Pediatric Dermatology at Northwestern’s Children’s Hospital until she became Chair of Dermatology at Northwestern in 2004. An author of more than 500 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Paller has also edited several major textbooks in dermatology, among them Hurwitz’s Clinical Pediatric Dermatology (now 6^th edition) and Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology in General Medicine. She is an NIH-funded investigator in both her laboratory-based and clinical research. She has directed the Pediatric Dermatology Clinical Trials Unit at Northwestern/ Lurie Children’s for the past 30 years and has been the lead investigator on several landmark trials in pediatric skin disease, particularly related to atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis, and genodermatoses. Her laboratory focuses on skin innervation in inflammatory diseases, wound healing, and topically delivered gene regulation through nanotherapy. She has defined skin and blood biomarkers for children with AD and ichthyoses towards pathogenesis-directed therapy and has developed new patient-related outcomes scales for itch and stigma in children. Dr. Paller was the inaugural President of the International Eczema Council and inaugural co-President of the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance. She has been President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, Society for Pediatric Dermatology, and the Women’s Dermatologic Society. She is currently President of the International Society for Pediatric Dermatology. She has served on Council and the Board of Scientific Councilors for NIH/NIAMS, and on numerous boards for dermatology patient advocacy organizations. She has received several honors for her scholarship, leadership and mentorship, among them election to the American Association of Physicians and the American Dermatological Association, and awarding of the Stephen Rothman Award from the Society for Investigative Dermatology, Mentor of the Year, Rose Hirschler, and the Wilma Bergfeld, MD Visionary & Leadership awards from the Women’s Dermatological Society, the Clarence S. Livingood, MD Memorial Award from the AAD, the Founder’s Award from the Chicago Dermatological Society, the Tanioku Kihei Memorial Award from the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatologist, and the inaugural Paula Stern Outstanding Women in Science and Medicine Award from Northwestern.