Meet the Councilor

The IEC is comprised of some of the leading experts in the field of Atopic Dermatitis, dedicated to increasing the understanding of atopic dermatitis and promoting its optimal management through research, education, and patient/family care.

On this page we invite you to ‘Meet the Councilor’. Get a personal glimpse into the mindsets of the IEC’s leading experts and key opinion leaders in the field who are solving complex dermatological challenges and navigating evolving field opportunities in atopic dermatitis and beyond. 

IEC Councilor Shawn Kwatra, MD FAAD is the Joseph W. Burnett Endowed Professor and Chair in Dermatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, USA. His areas of clinical expertise include chronic pruritus, prurigo nodularis, atopic dermatitis, and dermatology for ethnic skin.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Kwatra

IEC Associate Carolyn Jack, MDCM PhD FRCPC is an assistant professor of dermatology at McGill University and a junior scientist in the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Jack

IEC Associate Fernando Valenzuela, MD is an associate professor of dermatology and head of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Valenzuela

IEC Associate Yael Renert-Yuval, MD MSc is a scientist, clinician, and attending dermatologist in the largest pediatric dermatology unit in Israel, situated at Schneider Children's Medical Center, which is affiliated with Tel Aviv University.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Renert-Yuval

IEC Associate JiaDe 'Jeff' Yu, MD is a a board-certified dermatologist and fellowship-trained pediatric dermatologist specializing in allergic contact dermatitis and occupational dermatitis in adults and children in Boston, MA, USA

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Yu

IEC Councilor Katrina Abuabara, MD MSCE is a clinician and researcher, Dr. Abuabara is a dermatologist with the University of California San Francisco Health in San Francisco, CA, USA.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Abuabara 

IEC Councilor Sandipan Dhar, MBBS MD DNB FRCP (Edin.) is a professor and the head of the Department of Pediatric Dermatology at the Institute of Child Health in Kolkata, India. He has been key in establishing pediatric dermatology as a subspecialty in India.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Dhar

IEC Councilor Heidi Kong, MD, MHSc.  Dr. Kong is a board-certified dermatologist and senior investigator and chief of the Cutaneous Microbiome and Inflammation Section in the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Intramural Research Program in Bethesda, MD, USA.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Kong

IEC Secretary Kenji Kabashima, MD, PhD.  Dr. Kabashima is a professor of the Department of Dermatology at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Kabashima

IEC Councilor, Valeria Aoki, MD PhD, who is associate professor of dermatology at the University of São Paulo Medical School in São Paulo, Brazil.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Aoki, or listen to her 5-minute audio interview here.

IEC President-Elect Alan Irvine, MD, DSc. Dr. Irvine is a Professor of Dermatology at Trinity College Dublin, and a Consultant Dermatologist at Children’s Health Ireland, in Dublin Ireland.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Irvine, or listen to his 5-minute audio interview here. 

Immediate Past-President and Co-Founder, Emma Guttman, MD, PhD is the Waldman Professor and System Chair, Dermatology and Immunology Director, Center of Excellence for Eczema and the Occupational Dermatitis Clinic Director, Laboratory for Inflammatory Skin Diseases at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Guttman, or listen to her 5-minute audio interview here. 

Our first installment features Robert Bissonnette, MD, FRCPC, MSc, who is the current IEC president. Dr. Bissonnette, from Montreal, QC, Canada, is the CEO and medical director of Innovaderm Research, a contract research organization specializing in the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials in dermatology. 

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Bissonnette, or listen to his 9-minute audio interview here.