DERMATOLOGY HALL OF FAME - Key Persons
After medical training and during his dermatology residency at Cornell, Al Kopf became interested in melanoma. He went on to make a monumental impact upon the way we think about this skin cancer. He established the Malignant Melanoma Cooperative Group with NYU and four other universities. With the help of this group, he developed one of the earliest melanoma patient clinical databases which was designed to assess the effects of multiple variables on the survival of melanoma patients.
In addition, he focused efforts on early screening and developed, with others, the ABCDs of early melanoma. Dr. Kopf not only tirelessly educated the public concerning melanoma but he trained over twenty fellows, many of whom went on the make significant contributions to dermatology. Dr. Kopf's work resulted in hundreds of publications.
Dr. Kopf is widely respected by his peers who elected him president of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) and the American Dermatological Association. He is one of a handful of individuals who have been president of the AAD and a recipient of the AAD Gold medal. The World Health Organization recognized Dr. Kopf with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Barbara A. Gilchrest received her undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her MD from Harvard Medical School. Following a post-doctoral fellowship with Howard Green at MIT, Dr. Gilchrest established a tissue culture laboratory at HMS. Her research was sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.
Dr. Gilchrest served as Professor and Chair of Dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine from 1985 to 2008. Her research laboratory and post-doctoral research training program at Boston University was sponsored by NIA.
Dr. Gilchrest served as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology 2012-2017.
Dr. Gilchrest has contributed over 400 scholarly articles, reviews, textbook chapters and books to the medical literature. She is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a charter member of the National Academy of Inventors.
Dr. Gilchrest, a physician/scientist has advanced her specialty by encouraging an attitude of scientific inquiry among her trainees and residents. Her passion and collegiality are like no other.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
Past president of 13 professional societies, including the AAD, ASDS, Mohs College, and the International Society for Dermatologic Surgery, Dr. C. William Hanke is distinguished as a leader among leaders. Before founding the Laser and Skin Surgery Center of Indiana, Dr. Hanke served as Professor of Dermatology, Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Pathology at Indiana University School of Medicine.
He was the first physician in the United States to be awarded the triple Professorship. He is also one of a select few individuals who has been president of the AAD and honored with the AAD Gold Medal. In addition to the Gold medal he was awarded the Samuel J. Stegman Award and the Frederick E. Mohs medal.
A graduate of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Hanke completed a residency in the Department of Dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic, and then completed fellowship training at both the Cleveland Clinic (Mohs Micrographic Surgery) and Indiana University School of Medicine (Dermatopathology). He also earned a master's degree in Epidemiology from the University of Hawaii School of Public Health.
Dr. Hanke has a reputation for excellence in dermatologic surgery, laser, and cosmetic surgery that extends around-the-world. He has lectured to physicians at medical meetings in 25 countries and has performed live surgery in 7 countries. Hanke has made more than 400 contributions to the medical literature including over 100 book chapters and 26 books.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
A native of Viroqua, WI, Wheeler was born in 1917. He received a B.A. in 1938 and an M.D. in 1941, both from the University of Wisconsin where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha. He continued his professional training in medicine and dermatology at Cincinnati General Hospital and the University of Michigan Hospitals.
Following a tour of duty as a medical officer in the U.S. Army from 1944 until 1947, Wheeler returned to the University of Michigan as a resident, instructor, and research fellow. He joined the University of Virginia faculty as an assistant professor of dermatology in 1951 and was promoted to professor eight years later. Wheeler was certified by the American Board of Dermatology and Syphilogy and the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1951.
He was recruited to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1962 as professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Dermatology. When the division became a department in 1972, he was named its first chairman, a position he held until 1987. He continued to be active in the department as professor emeritus until 1999.
The Clayton E. Wheeler Jr. Distinguished Professorship in Dermatology was established in 1991 to honor the first chairman of the department. The professorship was established by gifts from former residents, trainees, and faculty members.
Dr. Wheeler served President of the Association of Professors of Dermatology and President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, which presented him its highest honor, the Rothman Award. He also served as president of the American Board of Dermatology, the American Dermatological Association and the American Academy of Dermatology, which presented him with the Masters in Dermatology Award and its highest honor, the Gold Medal Award.
Dr. Wheeler was an extraordinary clinician. His diagnostic acumen was incredible and his ability to teach was equally remarkable.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Daniel Mark Siegel, MD, is a Clinical Professor of Dermatology at SUNY Downstate and is a former President of the American Academy of Dermatology. He is also in private practice with Long Island Skin Cancer and Dermatologic Surgery in Smithtown, New York.
Dr. Siegel received his medical degree from Albany Medical College in New York, and subsequently completed his residency in dermatology at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. He then pursued a fellowship in Mohs Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Siegel also earned a Master of Science degree in management and policy from the W. Averell Harriman School for Management and Policy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and holds an Advanced Certificate in Labor/Management.
Dr. Siegel has published more than 100 articles and book chapters in major medical journals and textbooks. He is a reviewer, editor, and/or advisor for many of the major dermatology journals. He has given more than 500 lectures at national and international congresses. His expertise extends to a variety of areas outside of "routine" dermatology some of which include cutting edge computer technology and botany.
Dr. Siegel received the 2013 American Skin Association Public Policy & Medical Education Award and the 2012 Clinical Educator Award from the 2012 Winter Clinical Dermatology Conference. Among Dr. Siegel's many other awards and honors are the Academy of Dermatology Presidential Citation, which he received in 2000, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010. He was the 2009 recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Award, and, in 2008, he received the American College of Mohs Surgery Distinguished Service Award.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Professor at Oregon Health Sciences University
Diane R. Baker, MD has served a President of AAD and ABD. She was an AMA Delegate from AAD from 1997-2003. She has been a clinical faculty member in the Department of Dermatology at Oregon Health & Sciences University since 1976.
Dr. Baker has been honored with many awards including Presidential citations and Honorary Membership from AAD, the Meritorious Achievement Award for Clinical Faculty from Oregon Health & Sciences University, the Achievement Award for Public Policy/Medical Education from AMA, and Practitioner of the Year from the Dermatology Foundation.
A graduate of the Ohio State University and the Ohio State University College of Medicine, Dr. Baker trained in Dermatology at the University of Wisconsin and Oregon Health & Science University. She also completed a research fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University.
Dr. Baker currently serves as Affiliate Professor at Oregon Health Sciences University. Dr. Baker and her husband Jim have an active clinical practice and clinical research center in Portland.
Edgar "Ben" Smith, MD is one of a handful of individuals who was president of the American Academy of Dermatology and also a recipient of the Academy's Gold Medal. Born the son of a surgeon, he attended Rice University and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine. He trained in dermatology at Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Smith developed a lifelong interest in England after he spent a year there as a Fulbright Scholar.
An early introduction to griseofulvin at the University of Miami sparked his lifelong interest in fungal infections of the skin. After starting the dermatology program in New Mexico, Dr. Smith moved to Galveston, Texas where he spent over 25 years as a chairman of the dermatology department at The University of Texas Medical Branch. His legacy is enhanced by the number of faculty he mentored and the residents he trained who became superb clinical dermatologists.
Ellen Dorinda Shelley was named after her mother Ellen (Shattuck) Loeffel who was a physician at a time when few women went to medical school. Dr. Shelley grew up in St. Louis and graduated from the John Burroughs School before attending Mount Holyoke College where she graduated with a degree in Zoology. She spent post-doctoral time at Stanford after completing her medical studies and dermatology training at the University of Missouri.
Dr. Shelley chaired the dermatology programs at The University of Illinois at Peoria and The University of Toledo before embarking on a private practice in 1997. She contributed over two hundred publications to the medical literature. Dr. Shelley was a recipient of the Rose Hirschler Award and the Walter B. Shelley Leadership award from the Women's Dermatologic Society. She also served as president of the Women's Dermatologic Society and is a significant role model and leader for many of the women in Dermatology who have come behind her.
In recent years she has successfully reinvented herself as an author of children's books.
Eugene Van Scott was an innovative dermatology researcher and entrepreneur who will be remembered as a superb physician scientist. Dr. Van Scott headed dermatology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) from 1953-1968. In 1972 he received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medial Research Award for demonstrating the usefulness of topical mechlorethamine (nitrogen mustard) in the treatment of patients with T-cell lymphoma.
His work in psoriasis led to the use of methotrexate. He also received the 1975 Stephen Rothman Award from the SID and the 1980 Lila Gruber Cancer Research Award from the AAD. He was named a Master of Dermatology by the AAD in 1998. One of his students, Phillip Frost, MD endowed the Eugene Van Scott Award for Innovative Therapy of the Skin, which is given each year by the AAD.
A lectureship in his name is also given to a physician or cosmetic scientist who has made a major contribution to the field of cosmetic dermatology at each World Congress of the International Academy of Cosmetic Dermatology.
Other accomplishments of Professor Van Scott include the establishment of the skin turnover time and the use of alpha hydroxy acids in ichthyosis patients and cosmetic dermatology.
J. Lamar Callaway was associated with Duke University Medical Center from its beginning. He graduated from the Medical School's first class in 1933 at the age of 22 years. After training in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania with John Stokes, he joined the faculty at Duke on July 1, 1937, as its first dermatologist.
He established the teaching program in dermatology in 1939 and was appointed professor and chairman in 1946, a position he held for almost 36 years. In 1967, he was named James B. Duke Professor of Dermatology in recognition of his unique contribution to Duke University and dermatology.
During his career, Dr. Callaway served as president of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Dermatological Association, the American Board of Dermatology, the Association of Professors of Dermatology, and the Society of Investigative Dermatology. He authored or co-authored more than 160 scholarly publications.
In 1972, the American Academy of Dermatology awarded Dr. Callaway its Gold Medal, only the eighth awarded since the founding of the Academy in 1938. Of the more than 75 physicians Dr. Callaway trained as dermatologists, nine have become department heads at other medical schools. Under his leadership, Duke University Medical Center's division of Dermatology achieved and maintained national recognition for excellence in patient care, teaching and research.
Revered by his patients, trainees and colleagues, Dr. Callaway made a lasting contribution to dermatology.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Dermatology at Yale University
Dr. Bolognia is a longtime professor of Dermatology at Yale University. She received her medical degree and trained in dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine. She has served as president of the American Dermatological Association, the Women's Dermatologic Society, and the Medical Dermatology Society. She was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Academy of Dermatology in 2019. Dr. Bolognia is an honorary member of at least 10 Dermatology organizations.
Her crowning achievement is being senior editor of the comprehensive (encyclopedic) textbook, Dermatology, which has been translated into several foreign languages. In an age of dermatologic surgery and aesthetic dermatology, Dr. Bolognia stands out as a beacon for medical dermatology.
John Kenney, Jr. was the oldest of four children born in Tuskegee, Alabama, to parents who were influential figures in African American medicine. Kenney graduated from Bates College, then received his medical degree from Howard University in 1945.
Dr. Kenney served as president of the National Medical Association. He was the first black member of the American Academy of Dermatology which also named him a Master of Dermatology. He was given the organization's Gold Medal in 2001.
It was estimated that in the year of his death, there were about three hundred black dermatologists practicing in the United States. Dr. Kenney had mentored or trained about one-third of them. He died in 2003 of heart failure at the age of eighty-nine.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Lawrence A. Schachner graduated from medical school at the University of Nebraska in 1972. He completed his pediatric internship there in 1973. Following a pediatric residency and a dermatology residency at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, he joined the University of Miami department of Dermatology, establishing the Pediatric Dermatology Division in 1978. Since then, he has trained 28 fellows equally distributed amongst the United States and abroad and has impacted the education of many hundreds of pediatricians and dermatologists.
He served the University of Miami as Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Senior Associate Dean University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is a past president of the Society of Pediatric Dermatology. He is best known as a pioneer in the pediatric dermatology specialty, advancing it clinically with research and education.
Dr. Schachner has authored over 200 scientific publications and is well known as the lead author of the textbook "Pediatric Dermatology". In 2004, Dr. Schachner was named "Practitioner of the Year" by the Florida Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery. He is a 6-time recipient of the best teacher award from the residents of the University of Miami School of Medicine. He served as Vice-President of the International Society of Pediatric Dermatology 1992-95
Dr. Schachner's interests include use of bioengineered skin in pediatric wounds, skin infections, infestations in children, sun protection in childhood, cutaneous signs of child and sexual abuse, and new therapeutic modalities for acne, eczema, and epidermolysis bullosa.
Leon Goldman, the "father of laser surgery," began experimenting with lasers in his research laboratory shortly after they were invented in 1960 and performed the first laser surgery in 1966. He was the founding president of American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) and also served as president of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) which named its Leon Goldman Medal in his honor.
Dr. Goldman spent much of his career at the University of Cincinnati where he taught and practiced. He began there in 1929, shortly after completing his dermatology residency and remained there until 1980, when he became head of the Laser Treatment Center of the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati. After a decade, he moved to California where he was a consultant at the San Diego Naval Medical Center. He died in San Diego of heart failure on December 2, 1997, at the age of ninety-one.
Professor Goldman published over one hundred scientific articles and was the author of six books. While remembered for his early adoption of laser, he was also an accomplished diagnostician and served as chair of a department for over 35 years. He was both enthusiastic and pragmatic about the use of lasers in medicine and dermatology. Goldman was known for his quote "If you don' need the laser, don't use it" which was posted on his laboratory wall. He also said that "lasers have unlimited potential". His words and vision are as correct today as there were then.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Lynn A. Drake, MD has served as President of AAD and WDS. She was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and Congressional Fellow, sponsored by the National Academy of Medicine. She worked in the Senate Leadership Office of Kansas Senator Bob Dole.
Dr. Drake has received many awards for her service including the Bergfeld Award for Vision and Leadership and the Rose Hirschler Award from WDS, the Legacy Award from WDS, the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, and the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Adams State University.
Dr. Drake received her MD degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. She trained in dermatology at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Drake was Professor and Chair of Dermatology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She served as Vice-Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School where she founded and directed the Dermatology Clinical Investigation Unit.
Dr. Drake has authored over 130 Scientific articles including 48 Guidelines of Care for Dermatology. She is currently Director of Business Development, & Government, and Policy for the Wellman Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Malcolm Greaves received his medical degree from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1957. He was a UK Medical Research Council Fellow for 3 years at the University College London where he received a PhD in pharmacology. He completed his dermatology training at St. John's Institute of Dermatology and the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
He was appointed Clinical Professor and Head of the St. John's Institute of Dermatology in 1975 and later became Dean of the Institute in 1986. Professor Greaves was an honorary member of countless national societies and served as president of many important dermatology organizations.
After retirement he became a clinician-teacher in Southeast Asia, first in Malaysia and later in Singapore. Malcolm and his wife narrowly escaped death when they survived a tsunami on December 6, 2004, while on vacation in Dusit Laguna Resort, Phuket.
Professor Greaves contributions to skin research were immense. He was a clinician scientist who uncovered significant insights into the molecular pharmacology of skin inflammation, psoriasis immunotherapy, the pathophysiology of itch, and the autoimmune basis of chronic urticaria. Education was a passion and he made globalized postgraduate medical training in dermatology a priority.
He authored over six hundred peer-reviewed articles and was listed among the "Top 10 British Doctors" by The Times in 2010. Professor Greaves died at age 87.
Rex A. Amonette was born and raised in the small town of Nashville, Arkansas which is located in the southwest part of the state. After attending Hendrix College, as a Hoerner Scholar, he graduated from medical school at the University of Arkansas. His dermatology training was completed in at the University of Tennessee in Memphis where he was encouraged by his chair, William Rosenberg, to become a Mohs surgeon. Perry Robins had developed the first formal training for Mohs surgery at New York University and Dr. Amonette became the second fellowship trained Mohs surgeon in the United States. In 1972 he started the Memphis Dermatology Clinic.
Advancing the Mohs procedure and gaining acceptance for it in the medical community became the driving force of Amonette's career. Dr. Amonette's calm demeanor, ability to persuade, dogged persistence, and successful outcomes in the treatment of recurrent skin cancers slowly convinced a new generation of physicians of the merits of the technique. In addition, Dr. Amonette was an early adopter of the "fresh" tissue Mohs technique which he began using early in sensitive locations, such as around the eyes. The fresh technique enabled discontinuation of the Mohs zinc chloride fixative paste which also promoted adoption of the technique.
Dr. Amonette served as president of the International Society of Dermatologic Surgery, the American College of Mohs Surgery (ACMS), the American Academy of Dermatology, and the American Board of Dermatology. He was awarded the AAD Gold Medal and the ACMS Fredrick E. Mohs distinguished service award.
Richard B. Odom received his bachelor's degree and MD from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He played varsity basketball at Wake Forest. He received dermatology residency training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC.
A career U.S. Army officer, Colonel Odom served as Chief of Dermatology and Residency Program Director at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco 1972-84.
Dr. Odom completed his academic dermatology career at UCSF where he was Clinical Professor and Vice-Chair of Dermatology 1984-1995. He practiced at Sonoma Dermatology 2004-2015.
Dr. Odom has had many honors having served as President of the American Academy of Dermatology, the San Francisco Dermatologic Society, and the Pacific Dermatologic Association. He received the Gold Medal from AAD, The Rose Hirshler and Walter B. Shelley Awards from WDS, and the Distinguished Achievement Award from Wake Forest University.
Dr. Odom has always been admired for his unselfish dedication to dermatology and his ability to lead and motivate others.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Rose Hirschler was the second woman certified by the American Board of Dermatology (the first being Loretta Joy Cummins) and her memory lives on in an annual award given by the Women's Dermatology Society to individuals who have enhanced the role of women in the specialty.
Job Titles:
- National Cancer Institute As a Senior Investigator
After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in history, Steve Katz completed his medical training at Tulane University. Following a dermatology residency at the University of Miami and serving in the military, he received postdoctoral training at the University of London where he earned a PhD in immunology in 1974.
That same year Dr. Katz joined the National Cancer Institute as a senior investigator in the Dermatology Branch. In 1980 he became chief of the Dermatology Branch at NIH. In 1995 Katz was selected as the director of National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a position he held until his death.
It was at the NIH that Dr. Katz and his colleagues were able to make significant advances in the immunology of skin diseases. Katz supervised and led dozens of trainees, many of whom went on to become notable leaders in dermatology around the world. His own research included discovering an antigen associated with pemphigus. By virtue of his own and his colleagues research Dr. Katz multiplied his influence in dermatologic research in the United States and the rest of the world.
Dr. Katz was a president of the Society of Investigative Dermatology, The International League of Dermatological Societies, and the International Committee of Dermatology. He held honorary degrees from several foreign universities. The Dermatology Foundation gave Katz its Lifetime Career Educator Award in 2014. Stephen Katz's influence was immense. He died of a stroke at the age of seventy-seven
Thomas B. Fitzpatrick received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1945 and a PhD from University the of Minnesota in 1951. He was a fellow in Dermatology and Syphilology at the Mayo Clinic 1948-51.
Dr. Fitzpatrick set up and served as Professor and Head of the Division of Dermatology at the University of Oregon Medical School (1952-58). He was Professor and Head of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School (1959-90).
Dr. Fitzpatrick served as President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID) (1959-60) and the Dermatology Foundation (1971). He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Dermatology Foundation and the Stephen Rothman Gold Medal from SID.
His research involved every aspect of melanogenesis and the use of ultraviolet light in dermatology. He identified and described the white leaf-shaped macule recognized now as the earliest sign of tuberous sclerosis. He was editor of one of the most popular general textbooks of his time. His classification of Fitzpatrick skin types is ubiquitous and continues to remain relevant today.
Dr. Fitzpatrick was a prolific author, researcher, and teacher. He authored more than 200 scientific articles and six textbooks. During his 40-year career at Harvard, he trained many top dermatologists for academia, industry, research and practice.
Van Scott received his undergraduate (1945) and medical degrees (1948) from the University of Chicago. He completed his dermatology training at University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Van Scott left the NIH in 1968 to become a professor at Temple University, where he retired in 1989. In 1988 he founded the Neo Strata Company with Ruey Yu, PhD. and they enjoyed great commercial success. Together with Dr. Yu, Dr. Van Scott gave a transformative gift to the dermatology department at Temple University to support innovative clinical research.
Walter Shelley grew up in northern Minnesota as the adopted and only child of a railroad switch operator and his wife. An uncle, who was a physician, was instrumental in influencing his occupational choice. Dr. Shelley overcame early adversity. He did not talk until age 4 and was also asked to repeat the second grade. He eventually became one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, productive, and enduring dermatologists of his time. At 6'4", Walter Shelley was a tall man who left a high bar for those who were to come after him.
Shelley received many honors over the years, serving as President of five major dermatologic organizations: The American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the American Dermatologic Association, the American Board of Dermatology, and the Association of Professors of Dermatology. He received the Gold Medal from the AAD and the Rothman medal from the SID.
After earning PhD and MD degrees at the University of Minnesota he eventually settled at the University of Pennsylvania, first as a resident and later as faculty. At U Penn he was surrounded by all-star colleagues, saw patients with Donald Pillsbury for 25 years, and chaired the dermatology department for 15 years. Splitting his time equally between research and practice, Walter Shelley made important contributions to our knowledge of itching, sweating, and a myriad of other dermatologic conditions. It should be remembered that he coined the word "keratinocyte" and introduced it to dermatology in 1956.
A move to Ohio was precipitated by his marriage to Ellen Dorinda Loeffel, herself an accomplished dermatologist and department chair. There he continued his curiosity of all thing's dermatologic. A prolific writer, his love of journalism and wordcraft is obvious in everything he has written. He died at home in Grand Rapids, Ohio at age 92 of viral gastroenteritis that complicated colorectal cancer.
Walter Fredrick Lever was born in Erfurt, Germany, the older of a set of non-identical twins. His father, a practicing dermatologist, wanted Walter to become a urologist and preferred that his brother become a dermatologist. At the age of twelve, Walter informed his parents that he wished to become an "academic" dermatologist, the reason being that he was impressed by the physicians who could compose the articles in medical journals that his father brought home to read.
Both brothers began his medical studies in Heidelberg, Germany in 1928. After about 2 years he left Heidelberg and attended four additional medical schools: Vienna, Zurich, Hamburg, and Leipzig. He graduated from Leipzig in 1934. Sensing the turmoil of the "new" Germany, he sought and received a dermatology residency position at Harvard under Dr. C. Guy Lane. It was at Harvard that he got his first intense exposure to bullous disease and, after completing his residency, he accepted a research fellowship with John H Talbott to study pemphigus.
Being German in the United States during WWII closed some doors but when one closed in dermatology, another was opened in the pathology department at Massachusetts General Hospital. It was at this time that Lever's interest in appendage tumors of the skin came to the forefront. After the war, he returned to biochemical research and was one of the first dermatologists to receive a research grant from the NIH.
Even though he was working in biochemistry, he had not forgotten about pathology and clinical dermatology and taught courses in dermatopathology. Since there was not textbook available, he wrote one and the first edition came out in 1949. Still published today it became the predominant dermatopathology textbook, was translated into numerous foreign languages, and was a constant companion to several generations of dermatologists and dermatopathologists.
Dr. Lever eventually became the chairman of Dermatology at Tufts Medical Center where he had many research fellows who went on to have brilliant careers of their own.
Besides his work on appendageal tumors and publishing the premier dermatopathology text of his era, Professor Lever is remembered for the first (initial) description of bullous pemphigoid and differentiation of this condition from pemphigus. As with many discoveries, this clarity was only recognized many years later by all of dermatology after immunofluorescent studies in the early 1970s clearly distinguished the conditions.
William A. Pusey, MD was a charter member of the Chicago Dermatological Society, a past president of the American Dermatological Association (ADA) and a past president of the American Medical Association (AMA). He was chair of the department of Dermatology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago which later became the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He was an expert in the study of syphilis and advocated for the use of radiation for the treatment of a variety of dermatologic conditions. In addition, he authored the first history of dermatology to be written in English.
He was born as the son of a physician and graduated from Vanderbilt in 1885 and New York University School of Medicine in 1888. He received additional training in the dermatology in Europe.
During his tenure as AMA president, he argued against the specialization of medicine and drew attention to the costs of obtaining a medical degree, which he felt kept poor rural students from attending medical school and contributed to the lack of physicians in less urban localities. He is one of the individuals who signed the first charter of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Wilma F. Bergfeld, MD has a remarkable record of leadership, having served as President of AAD, WDS, ASDP, ADA and 5 other professional societies. A noted dermatopathologist, she is Director of the Dermatopathology Fellowship Training program at the Cleveland Clinic, which she founded in 1975.
Dr. Bergfeld has been honored with many awards including the Master Dermatologist Award, Marion B. Sulzberger Award and the Thomas Pearson Award from AAD, the Rose Hirschler Award from WDS, and the Elson B. Helwig Award from ASDP to name only a very few.
A graduate of the College of William and Mary and Temple University School of Medicine, Dr. Bergfeld completed a Dermatopathology Fellowship at the AFIP. She joined the Department of Dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic as staff in 1969 and became Head of Dermatopathology in 1977.
Dr. Bergfeld has authored over 750 publications including 4 books and 84 book chapters. A renowned hair disease and cosmetic ingredient expert, Dr. Bergfeld has served as a consultant to the FDA and major pharmaceutical companies.