am an early stage faculty member highly committed to become a successful, independent physician scientist who improves outcomes in skin cancer. I have authored over 45 publications, 15 as first or senior author, in journals such as Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and JAMA Dermatology. My research has focused on identifying actionable risk factors for skin prevention and treatment. I first completed a Master’s in Clinical Research examining how skin cancer prevention behaviors varied by risk phenotype. Through this project I learned the basic tenets of epidemiology and statistical analysis. I built upon this foundation in my doctoral work to investigate common genetic risk factors for skin cancer in a prospective, population-based cohort. In residency, I conducted an analysis of the National Cancer Database melanoma file, showing that the absolute mitotic rate was strongly associated with the odds of having a positive sentinel lymph node. This finding was especially important as the mitotic rate had just been removed from the melanoma staging criteria.

To support my development in machine learning and data science, I have worked on both phenotyping patients from the electronic health record as well as conducting phenome-wide association studies. In addition, I have ongoing collaborations in machine learning and artificial intelligence. My research involves using multiple methods to identify Veterans, specifically organ transplant recipients, who are at high risk for developing multiple and/or aggressive skin cancers. My prior research and clinical experience in epidemiology and dermatology serve as a strong foundation for my current CDA-2. I aim to use this CDA-2 as a training vehicle to strengthen my technical skill set in genetic epidemiology. These efforts will enable me to develop and deploy tools to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with skin cancers in organ transplant recipients and ultimately for all Veterans with skin cancer.

In the past three years my work has been supported by a one-year grant from the Skin Cancer Foundation, a three-year Physician Scientist Career Development Award from the Dermatology Foundation, and most recently a Career Development Award from VA CSR&D.