Date: 07/12/2022

Award was presented during SPD 2022 Annual Meeting            

Dr. Amy Paller received the SPD’s first Hall of Fame Award during its 47th Annual Meeting in Indianapolis on Sunday, July 10. The criteria for this honor includes being an SPD member for at least 30 years and having made substantial contributions to the organization and field of pediatric dermatology.

Dr. Paller is the Walter J. Hamlin Professor and Chair of Dermatology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center at Northwestern University.

An author of almost 600 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Paller has also edited several major textbooks in dermatology, among them Hurwitz’s Clinical Pediatric Dermatology and Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology in General Medicine.

She is an NIH-funded investigator in both her laboratory-based and clinical research. She has directed the Pediatric Dermatology Clinical Trials Unit at Northwestern/ Lurie Children’s for the past 30 years and has been the lead investigator on several landmark trials in pediatric skin disease, particularly related to atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis, and genetic skin disorders.

Her laboratory focuses on cell-cell communication in inflammatory skin diseases and impaired wound healing, as well as on topically delivered gene regulation through nanotherapy. She has defined skin and blood biomarkers for children with atopic dermatitis and ichthyosis towards pathogenesis-directed therapy and has developed new patient-related outcomes scales for itch and stigma in children.

Dr. Paller has been president of several organizations, including the Society for Pediatric Dermatology in 2004-2005 and was the initial co-president of the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance along with Larry Eichenfield. She was also SPD Secretary-Treasurer for 10 years in the mid-90s to 2000s and co-chaired our 2007 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Dr. Paller is currently President of the International Society for Pediatric Dermatology.

She has served on Council and the Board of Scientific Councilors for NIH/NIAMS, is a Section Editor for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, and is active as a board member for several patient advocacy organizations.

Dr. Paller has mentored hundreds of students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty; her greatest pleasure is to watch young people gain knowledge, get excited about concepts and discoveries, and advance their own careers.