Dermatology News
Updates from the UNMC Department of Dermatology
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We are thrilled to announce that four outstanding future resident physicians have matched into our ACGME dermatology program at UNMC! Please join us in welcoming Molly Antonson, Jagjeet Gill, Jose Ricardo, and Aliya Rogers (pictured above), who will be joining our team on July 1, 2026.
Match Day, held annually on the 3rd Friday of March, marks a pivotal moment for residency candidates nationwide as they learn where they will continue their medical training.
We are also incredibly proud to share that all four of our UNMC medical students who applied to dermatology residency programs successfully matched! Molly will be staying with us at UNMC, while Sophie, Kim, and Max will be continuing their dermatology training at programs across the Midwest (pictured below).
Additionally, all three of our previous year-long research students—Bianca Ituarte, Mitchell Taylor, and Sierra Thomas—matched into residency programs. We couldn’t be prouder of all the students who have trained with our department and look forward to seeing their continued success!
| | 2025 American Academy of Dermatology Resident Recap | | |
This year a large group of our residents were able to travel to the sunny state of Florida and home of Mickey Mouse in Orlando for the annual American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) conference. There was record-breaking attendance this year with over 20,000 attendees! It was also the first time they had an opening ceremony with a guest speaker who was none other than Martha Stewart. Besides learning about all different types of skincare products in the exhibit hall, there were numerous amazing lectures we attended including Board prep lectures. Some of the residents with children also attended a fabulous panel on “Pearls from our Practices and Parenthood”.
Our very own Dr. Morgan Zabel (PGY-2) and Dr. Madison Grinnell (PGY-3) exceptionally represented UNMC as the “hydroxychloroqueens” at the Resident Jeopardy session. We also had residents with case presentations at the gross and micro symposium including a case I presented on “Phrynoderma Initially Managed as Folliculotropic MF” and Dr. Delice Kayishunge (PGY-2) presented a case on “Intralymphatic histiocytosis of the Left Eyelid: A Rare Condition”. Our wonderful medical student research fellows, Joe McGrath and Evelyn Fagan also had numerous posters and presentations during the conference. We are also super proud of Dr. Divya Sharma (PGY-2) who gave a phenomenal lecture as part of the Skin-environmental Interface: Dermatologic Challenges of Our Changing Climate and Environment session. He spoke on his research with reducing red bag waste in dermatology and this accomplishment is extremely impressive to be a lecture speaker as a resident physician.
Additionally, our resident team participated in the Dermpath bowl and had a valiant effort at the fun challenge! Some of the residents along with UNMC faculty also attended the Women’s Dermatologic Society (WDS) annual luncheon where Dr. Jennifer Ashton, women’s health expert, OB-GYN, and former ABC Chief Med Correspondent, was a guest speaker and we cheered on Dr. Ashley Wysong as she was announced as the President-Elect of WDS. Additionally, we had fun catching up with the former residents at the UNMC Alumni event and afterwards were treated to dinner with Dr. Adams. It was clearly a busy but fun trip and when we returned the residents shared the many pearls we learned from the conference during a meeting with all UNMC dermatology faculty.
Dr. Taylor Thieman (PGY-3 Dermatology Resident)
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Clinic Retreat:
Our recent Dermatology Clinic Retreat Day was a huge success, bringing our team together for a day of learning, team building, and fun. Designed around the theme of teamwork, the event featured engaging team-bonding activities, interactive education tables, and inspiring presentations.
Attendees explored key topics such as patient experience, delivering feedback, career pathways, wellness, and even participated in a hands-on fire extinguisher simulation. The retreat also included dynamic team-building exercises that encouraged collaboration and strengthened relationships among colleagues. Each expert left us feeling motivated and empowered to continue delivering extraordinary care to our patients.
Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to making this retreat a meaningful experience. Together, we continue to grow as a stronger, more connected team!
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Faculty Retreat:
Our faculty recently gathered for the annual Dermatology Faculty Retreat, and it was a day filled with insightful discussions and team-building!
We started the day with Dr. Adams’ State of the Department address, followed by a thought-provoking presentation on AI on Campus by Scott Raymond, Chief Information and Innovation Officer. The Education Team provided updates on residency match and rank review, while the Clinic Leadership Team led a discussion on the Physician Wellness Pulse survey and faculty efficiencies wish list follow-up.
We also explored EPIC efficiencies to improve workflows, brainstormed during the Blue Chips discussion over lunch, and took part in a fun Group Mystery Game. The day concluded with an iExcel Tour at the Davis Global Center, where we learned more about cutting-edge medical training technologies.
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Resident Retreat:
Our residents gathered for a productive and engaging retreat that kicked off with breakfast and a morning discussion covering residency reflections, elective planning, core lecture feedback, and onboarding prep for new residents. The team reviewed roles for the upcoming year and shared clinical and procedural updates—including improvements to inpatient biopsy kits and ideas for future didactic sessions. After a collaborative morning, they enjoyed lunch at Clio and wrapped up the day with team bonding at Fat Putter. Here's to a strong year ahead!
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Admin Retreat:
The admin team recently enjoyed a fun and productive retreat day! Highlights included playing Jeopardy and Kahoot, participating in a StrengthsFinder workshop, creating a bingo card of team goals for the year, and wrapping up the day with some friendly competition in mini bowling. It was a great day of team building, reflection, and planning for the year ahead!
| | New Clinics – Supportive Oncoderm / Pigmented Lesions | | We are excited to have opened new pigmented lesion and supportive oncodermatology clinics at the end of 2024. These clinics allow us to better support our patients and the oncology teams involved in their care. The pigmented lesion clinic is located at Village Pointe and focuses on patients with melanoma or atypical nevi and those at high risk of melanoma. We will offer total body photography using the Fotofinder platform to allow close longitudinal tracking of changes in patient’s skin exam. Beyond total body photography, Fotofinder includes artificial intelligence analysis of images to detect worrisome lesions and high-resolution, 140x magnified dermoscopy with longitudinal tracking of a lesion’s dermoscopic features. | |
Our supportive oncodermatology clinic is located at the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center to facilitate patient access and coordination with oncologic specialties. The clinic cares for patients with skin side effects of their cancer therapy, including medical management but also cellular therapies and radiation. We focus on maximizing the quality of life of our cancer patients and making sure their skin toxicity does not limit treatment options for their cancer. In the upcoming fiscal year, our clinic will occur at a new time so we are co-located with Drs. Mammen and Marr, the medical and surgical oncologists caring for our melanoma patients. We will also be better positioned to support our stem cell transplant team at this new time. We are excited about this close collaboration.
Dr. Jesse Hirner
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Resident's Corner
The last few months have been busy for UNMC's dermatology residents! Our days have been filled with abundant learning opportunities including hands-on sessions, a robust didactic schedule and monthly grand rounds presentations, research conferences and even some trivia nights! We have had several hands-on didactic learning sessions-- injectables with Dr. Sulewski in UNMC's iExcel lab and cosmetic sclerotherapy with Dr. Sutton. Both Dr. Kattapuram and Dr. Kayishunge hosted well-attended and thought-provoking in-person grand rounds in January and February helping the audience brush up on their genodermatoses. This was a wonderful learning experience and a great way to get input from our UNMC faculty and the dermatologists in our community who have expertise in different aspects of dermatology to take the best possible care of our patients.
Our residents have been busy attending and presenting at conferences. Dr. Kayishunge recently attended the Hidradenitis Supportive Academy and was selected by the Hidradenitis Supportiva Foundation's Research Committee for a prestigious award meant to develop clinical and procedural skills as well as foster mentoring relationships with HS experts. Our own Dr. Sharma was invited as a guest speaker on the association between climate change and skin cancer risk at the University of Michigan. He along with Mitchell Taylor, Sierra Thomas, Dr. Barrett and Dr. Voss had a paper published regarding primary tumor location and prognostic factors for leiomyosarcoma. Dr. Sharma also had a paper accepted by JAAD on workforce analysis of dermatology residency programs in the United States. Dr. Lloyd-McLennan recently attended the Dermatology Foundation meeting in Naples, Florida and was the recipient of the L'Oréal resident award to attend the conference. Dr. Grinnell had a paper that was recently accepted by JAMA Dermatology on digital photography best practices with special considerations for diverse populations. Dr. Fernandez presented her research regarding Teledermatology in Kenya at the recent Skin of Color Society Symposium. Dr. Thieman and Dr. Kayishunge both had interesting abstracts accepted for Gross and Micro at the American Academy of Dermatology Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Here, residents enjoyed participating in jeopardy, the dermpath bowl, attending talks and review sessions, a special dinner with Dr. Adams, events with Martha Stewart and Snoop Dog and even some insider Disney World access (and let’s not forget all the skin care samples!).
The UNMC Graduate Medical Education office recently hosted a trivia night for medical students, residents, fellows and coordinators and our dermatology team won second place! Huge thanks to our GME office for planning so many great resident wellness and other fun events throughout the year! Dr. Lloyd-McLennan and Dr. Fernandez spoke to Benson High School students about dermatology and careers in healthcare through their REACH Health Career Summit. The residents also recently hosted three prospective residents for a second look at Blue Sky Pickleball. All the residents were in attendance and brought their children. A total of 8 children were in attendance. Dr. Oudenhoven and her son Wells even stopped in to say hello! Dr. Kattapuram got engaged! In addition to managing a busy inpatient consult service, she has also gone to do procedures in the OR for some of our hospitalized patients. The second-year residents wrapped up their first Core exams after many nights and weekends outside of clinic spent studying, thanks to everyone who gave us special lectures and quizzed us on rotations to make sure we were prepared! Dr. Thieman also hosted a resident dinner at her house with dermatology themed food including spaghetti and meatballs, cornflake encrusted chicken, a charcuterie board shaped like a keratoacanthoma, a layered cake and more to remind us of our favorite dermpath diagnoses!
Dr. Grinnell was named chief resident, and our current chief Dr. Lloyd-Mclennan will be transitioning those responsibilities over in the coming months. At our dermatology Christmas party, Dr. Thieman was awarded the “Outstanding Trainee in Dermatology” award and Dr. Clark was awarded the Dr. Kristie Hayes award.
We are also thrilled to welcome Paige Weil as our new residency coordinator and already feel so supported by her positive spirit!!
Dr. Madison Grinnell (PGY-3 Dermatology Resident)
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Leo Tolstoy once wrote that “Spring is the time of plans and projects” and we are staying true to those words here at UNMC Department of Dermatology- planting the seeds to grow great things. Thanks to philanthropic support of the department, we hosted another departmental spring retreat to dream of those “plans and projects” ahead. The faculty retreat focused on applications of technology, hosting speakers on AI in medicine and technology on campus along with a tour of the cutting edge iExcel simulation center and rounded out by our own faculty sharing and brainstorming new initiatives to enrich patient care, teaching, and research here in Nebraska. The same sense of renewal and innovation was echoed in the residents, clinic staff, and administrative team retreats, and we are ready to put these plans into action!
Beyond cultivating ideas, the department is looking forward to growing our team members as well. We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Georgeanne Cornell will be joining UNMC Dermatology as a dual board-certified Dermatologist and Dermatopathologist this fall! Originally hailing from Colombia, Missouri and currently residing in St. Louis, we are ready to welcome Dr. Cornell and her husband Chris to Nebraska. Speaking of new team members, we celebrated an incredibly successful “Match Day” this spring- the day where senior medical students all over the country find out where they will complete their residency training. We matched 4 superstars and are honored to teach this next generation. Whether it be a track record of meaningful community service, mentorship to others, publishing in top journals or even starting a biotech company, this group of future dermatologists have done it all and we are looking forward to having them as a part of the team. Despite Dermatology consistently being rated as one of the most competitive specialties in medicine, through the mentorship of UNMC Dermatology faculty, all four of our UNMC senior students and four departmental research fellows applying to the specialty this year matched to a dermatology residency program.
Please join the Department of Dermatology as we plan ahead this spring and plant the seeds for dermatologic care, education, and research of the future.
Gratefully yours,
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Erin Dahms,
NU Foundation
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Developing new clinical programs, innovative education strategies and cutting-edge research protocols depend on support from our philanthropic partners. UNMC alumni, grateful patients, and community partners have expressed an interest in learning more about our program, our opportunities to enhance the impact we have at UNMC and across Nebraska, and our vision to become a national leader in treatment, physician training, and outreach. If you would like to learn more about private gifts and partnerships in these or other areas, or about volunteering for our programs, we welcome the chance to share them with you. We are grateful for every gift, as well as each person who would like to be a part of the team serving our dermatologic community.
We have immediate needs in the following areas:
- Research Pilot Start-up Fund
- Education Funding -- Resident Education Fund, Medical Student Research Scholarships, Endowed Research Fellowship
- Patient Care and Clinical Support
- Endowed Faculty Sponsorship
For more information please contact:
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UNMC Department of Dermatology
985645 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-5645
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