What's New at UMass Dermatology

What’s New in the Department of Dermatology?

There is a lot going on in our department! Here are just some of the highlights from the prior year:

Honors/Awards

• Ryan Svoboda was awarded the Dermatology Chief Resident Educator of the Year Award at Graduation 2024
• Bella Plumptre received a NEDS Early Career Mentorship Award, as well as Women's Derm Society Mentorship Award for her work in vascular anomalies
• Tracey Otto (PGY-2) won first place for Outstanding Participation in the John A Kennedy Jr MD 2024 NMA Dermatology Resident Research Symposium
• Holly Neale (PGY-3) was awarded a PeDRA 2024 Travel Scholarship
• Samantha O’Neil, PA-C received her M.B.A, and both she and Erin Lashua, PA-C completed SPDA Dermatology Fellowships
• Maggi Ahmed (PGY-4) won the Dr. Richard E. Fitzpatrick Award for the Best Overall Clinical Research and Innovation award at the American Society for Laser, Medicine and Surgery Annual Conference, April 2024, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, as well as scholarships to the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery Annual Resident Symposium, April 2024, Dallas and the 17th Annual Chief Academy: Building a Foundation for Successful Leaders in Dermatology, May 2024.
• Warda Abdi (medical student, Richmond Lab) was a travel award recipient for the 2024 American Association of Immunologists Annual Meeting

Faculty Appointments

• Karen Wiss was named Professor Emerita
• Bella Plumptre will join faculty in January 2025 after completing her dermatology residency and pediatric dermatology fellowship training at UMass
• Soheil (Sam) Dadras joined UMass Dermatopathology as a Professor.

Department Leadership

• Nikki Levin was named Chair of the Dermatology DPAC (Hiring and promotions committee)
• Jillian Richmond was named UMass Chan Diversity & Inclusion Liaison from the Department of Dermatology
• Bella Plumptre and Ryan Svoboda were named Associated Residency Program Directors
• Leah Belazarian was named Program Director of the Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship

Society/Editorial Leadership

• Rita Khodosh was named Chair of the AAD Patient Safety and Quality Committee and Deputy Chair of the MVP (MIPS Value Pathways) Committee
• Bella Plumptre was named Co-Lead, Vascular Anomalies Subgroup, Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance (PeDRA)
• Holly Neale (PGY-3) was named as a PeDRA Early Investigator Committee Member
• Maggi Ahmed (PGY-4) was named American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, Resident Liaison, was reappointed to the Academic and Communication Committees in the Global Vitiligo Foundation, and was also reappointed as Editor of the Vitiligo Voice, a biannual newsletter released by the Global Vitiligo Foundation.
• Jillian Richmond was named to the Editorial Board of Frontier in Lupus

Fellowship Programs:

Our Dermatopathology Fellowship welcomed Dr. Nicole Lewandrowski, and Dr. Sabrina House and Dr. Mary Awad (a UMass residency graduate) are our Procedural Dermatology Fellows. All of our fellowships training programs are ACGME-accredited.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Under the leadership of Drs. Riley McLean-Mandell and Jillian Richmond, UMass Dermatology’s DEI committee has been very active and was recently recognized by the University for its programming (link below). This includes a mentorship program organized by Drs. McLean-Mandell and Nikki Levin with Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, a school without a dermatology residency. The program includes monthly mentoring sessions with their Dermatology Interest Group and individual resident and faculty mentors for their students. We also provide a summer rotation between the 1st and 2nd years for two students came to Worcester to observe.  

https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2024/08/department-of-dermatology-uses-evaluation-and-mentorship-to-lean-into-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-work/?utm_campaign=news_dermatology_dei_work_082824&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dio_newsletter&utm_content=read_more_button

Volunteer Activities

• “WooDerm” was founded by Sarah Servattalab (2024 Residency Graduate, current pediatric dermatology fellow at Boston Children’s), which is a resident and medical student-led, faculty-supported volunteer initiative aimed at providing free and accessible dermatologic care to the Worcester community to those in need. The organization’s first clinic was held in September 2023 and has run once monthly since then thanks to her efforts alongside a long list of others in our department/community. Dr. Gabriella Paquette (PGY-2) is now the resident director of this program.
• Nikki Levin provides free dermatologic care at Metrowest Free Medical Clinic in Marlborough, MA as well as Gratis Free Medical Clinic in Framingham, MA
• Holly Neale serves as a PeDRA Medical Student Mentor
• Teddy Bear Clinic, a UMass-wide event to help pediatric patients become comfortable with medical care, was held on May 18^th, 2024. Dermatology programming was led by Leah Belazarian and Bella Plumptre.
• UMass Skin Cancer Screening Day was held on May 18^th, 2024 and led by Dori Goldberg and the UMass DIG. The event was a huge success and well-staffed by faculty and residents.
• Camp Discovery, a weeklong overnight camp for children with chronic dermatologic conditions, was held in Western Massachusetts in July 2024. It was led by Karen Wiss and Dori Goldberg and staffed by Drs. Bella Plumptre (PGY-5), Gabriella Paquette (PGY-2), Andressa Akabane (PGY-2), and Maggi Ahmed (PGY-4)

Research/Grants

• John Harris received a $4M U01 award from the NIH to study how genetics influences vitiligo in a large, remote study population.
• Jillian Richmond was awarded a Lupus Research Alliance Mechanisms and Targets Award $600,000 for 2023-2026.
• Sarah Whitley is the PI for M23-698, a phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study to evaluate efficacy and safety of upadacitinib in adult and adolescent subjects with moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa who have failed anti-TNF therapy. (Sponsor: AbbVie)
• Gabriella Paquette received a Remillard Grant to support WooDerm
• Rita Khodosh received a UMass Wellness Mini-grant for "Enabling real-time chart completion in Dermatology clinic to reduce after-hours EHR work, thus improving wellness and decreasing burnout"
• Holly Neale (PGY-3) and Maggi Ahmed (PGY-4) both had cases accepted to the Massachusetts Academy of Dermatology 2024 Resident and Fellows Poster Competition
• Faradia Kernizan (medical student, Richmond Lab) received a $15,000 Lupus Research Alliance diversity research supplement award, as well as a Society for Pediatric Dermatology Medical Student Mentorship Award to conduct research on morphea with Diana Reusch
• Yuying Zhang and Shakeria Stewart (medical students, Richmond Lab) both received Derm Foundation Diversity Research Supplement Awards
• Hedieh Ragati Haghi (medical student) and Dr. Diana Reusch received a grant from Child's Play Charity to fund a Virtual Reality headset for patients with epidermolysis bullosa
• The VIGOR Study (supported by a U01 grant, Dr. Jillian Richmond) was launched and began enrolling participants.
• The inaugural Vitiligo Center of Research Translation (VCORT) Symposium (supported by NIH P50 AR080593, Jillian Richmond) took place in February 2024
• Maggi Ahmed (PGY-4) was an invited speaker in the 20th Annual Skin of Color Society Scientific Symposium, American Academy of Dermatology Annual meeting, “Pathways to Equity: Advancing Advocacy, Research and Clinical Excellence. Melanocyte Transplantation Plus Phototherapy and Topical JAK Inhibitor or Tacrolimus in Vitiligo: A Randomized Comparative Study.” as a recipient of the 2020 SOCS Grant, March 2024, San Diego, USA. Dr. Ahmed also presented her work “Full Ablative Versus Fractional Ablative Er:YAG Laser During Epidermal Cellular Grafting Surgery in Vitiligo: A Randomized Controlled Comparative Study” at the American Society for Laser, Medicine and Surgery Annual Conference, April 2024, Baltimore, Maryland, USA