Mission Statement: The UCSF Pediatric Dermatology fellowship program guides and trains our fellows to deliver comprehensive, cutting-edge, and compassionate care to pediatric patients with all types of skin disease. Through broad clinical and procedural experience and intentional mentorship, we strive to develop our fellows’ full potential and promote lifelong scholarship. Our supportive culture emphasizes and cultivates humility, commitment, high standards of excellence, personal wellness, and service while encouraging growth as thoughtful clinicians, insightful educators, and innovative leaders. We believe that training fellows with diverse experiences, backgrounds, faiths, genders, and orientations is essential to meet the pediatric dermatology needs of the present and future. Our fellowship seeks scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with a desire to serve culturally diverse and medically underserved populations, and those committed to working on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We strongly encourage individuals who self-identify as belonging to historically marginalized groups to apply.
The UCSF Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship will offer virtual interviews only in 2024/2025
Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship Interviews:
An Individualized Approach in Response to Varying Institutional Rules
The process for interviewing fellowship candidates for pediatric dermatology has changed dramatically since the 2020-2021 recruitment season in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last two interview cycles, all pediatric dermatology fellowships conducted virtual interviews. Due to currently variable institutional policies nationally, the Society for Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship Directors Committee voted on a course of action for the 2024-2025 interview cycle. A majority of fellowship directors voted to allow each institution to make the choice that is best for their program and within their institutional guidelines, whether virtual-only or hybrid (virtual or in-person) interviews.
For 2024-2025
Pediatric dermatology programs will interview fellowship applicants according to their discretion and as directed by their local institutional GME policies.
Programs are encouraged to offer a virtual interview option to each applicant.
No applicant will be penalized for choosing to interview virtually at programs offering in-person interviews, including applicants from the same institution.
Applicants should recognize that many programs are bound by local GME rules and regulations and thus interview style choice is beyond their control.
We recognize there are costs- financial, environmental, educational, and other- to interviewing in person. We are committed to equity and inclusion, and as such, no program may inquire about the reason a candidate selects to be interviewed in-person or virtually.
We are committed to ongoing evaluation of safeguards to maintain equity for applicants as it relates to in-person visits as part of the interview process, including in-person interviews, open houses, or second looks.
Each program will outline their application and interview timeline on their program’s website.
These recommendations are subject to change in the case of updated COVID-19 pandemic or other restrictions required from a public health and safety standpoint. Health and safety considerations should supersede the guidance offered by these recommendations.
The Fellowship Directors’ Committee acknowledges that there are no perfect solutions, and no process will address all stakeholder preferences. These recommendations were developed to communicate the approach to fellowship interviews, which, for individual programs who select all virtual or a hybrid model, may in part reflect the local and institutional culture and environment.
This statement was composed by Kelly M. Cordoro, MD and Yvonne Chiu, MD, immediate past and current chair, respectively, of the SPD Fellowship Directors Committee, on behalf of and approved by the SPD Fellowship Director’s Committee and revised on July 25. 2023. The language in this document was adapted from the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine 2022-2023 guidance document: https://www.im.org/resources/ume-gme-program-resources/resources-fellowship-application
CORE FACULTY:
UC San Francisco
Kelly M. Cordoro, MD, Fellowship Director, and Division Chief
Ilona J. Frieden, MD, Faculty, and Immediate Past Division Chief
Erin Mathes, MD, Faculty
Sarah Coates, MD, Faculty
Anu Mathur, MD, PhD, Faculty
Joanna Tu, MD, Faculty
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland
Nicole Kittler, MD, Faculty and Section Director
Renee Howard, MD, Faculty; Immediate Past Section Director
Regina-Celeste Ahmad, MD, PhD, Faculty
Manisha Notay, MD, Faculty
VOLUNTEER FACULTY:
Amy Gilliam, MD
Mary Williams, MD
Jeff Sugarman, MD, PhD
Linda Beets-Shay, MD
FELLOWS:
Christine Wong, MD
Jeanette Zambito, MD
Location and General Information
The Division of Pediatric Dermatology has several sites. Our main clinical practice is located at the Mt. Zion Campus of UC San Francisco. Additional clinical activity, the inpatient consultation service, and multi-disciplinary clinics are located at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco (Mission Bay Campus). We have a large clinical section at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, though our fellows do not rotate at this time. Our clinical activity is very brisk; we see approximately 6,000 visits per year in the pediatric division at the Mt. Zion campus and the other sites are rapidly growing in volume.
Inpatient consults number approximately 150 to 200 consults per year and is seen at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, which opened in 2015 at the beautiful waterfront Mission Bay Campus.
Surgical and Laser Training
We have an active laser practice that serves patients with vascular anomalies, pigmented lesions, other birthmarks, and skin conditions. Scheduled laser and other surgical procedures clinics occur twice monthly in our outpatient center at Mt. Zion and once monthly in the operating room at the Children’s Hospital in San Francisco for patients who require general anesthesia.
Subspecialty and Multidisciplinary Clinics
Birthmarks and Vascular Anomalies Conference occurs twice monthly at Mission Bay (Drs. Frieden, Mathes, and Kittler from pediatric dermatology among other medical specialists)
Disorders of Cornification Clinic quarterly at Mt. Zion (Drs. Mathes and Williams)
Genetics/Dermatology Clinic quarterly at Mt. Zion (Drs. Cordoro, Williams, and Slavotinek)
Chronic GVHD Clinic quarterly at Mission Bay (Drs. Cordoro, Mathur, BMT Faculty, and others)
Ectodermal Dysplasia Conference quarterly (Drs. Frieden, Mathur, and others)
Pediatric Dermatology/Rheumatology Clinic (Drs. Cordoro, Mathur, and Pediatric Rheumatology Faculty and Fellows)
Research
Our faculty have multiple and wide-ranging areas of interest and expertise. Research projects include investigator-initiated studies as well as PeDRA-affiliated studies in Vascular Anomalies, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, ichthyosis, and other areas such as education, global health, and patient-oriented work. All fellows are expected to engage in scholarly research and are encouraged (but not required) to take the Training in Clinical Research Course (TICR).
Number of Positions: 2 annually
Eligibility Requirements: US American Board of Dermatology (ABD) Certified or Eligible (must have completed a US ACGME or Canadian Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons accredited Dermatology residency by the start of the fellowship and be eligible and obtain a California Medical License).
How to Apply: Applicants must apply through the SF Match. In addition, a statement of interest/personal statement, a CV, and three letters of recommendation should be emailed to Fellowship Director, Kelly Cordoro (kelly.cordoro@ucsf.edu) and Fellowship Administrator, Chris Walker (chris.walker@ucsf.edu). All interviews will be virtual.
Summary:
The UCSF Pediatric Dermatology Division has two funded, ACGME-accredited clinical fellowship positions each year. We offer strong outpatient and inpatient clinical training, outpatient and OR-based laser and procedural surgery, multiple multidisciplinary clinical experiences, active mentorship, clinical diversity, and scholarly activity and research opportunities. Our pediatric dermatology fellowship core teaching faculty includes 4 full-time clinicians, one part-time clinician (Dr. Frieden), and one part-time clinician who is a pediatric dermatologist/immunologist (Dr. Mathur). The core of the training is based within the UCSF Department of Dermatology, allowing for regular interactions with our large and talented dermatology faculty including dermatopathologists, dermatologic surgeons, and general and subspecialty dermatologists. Fellows also consistently interact with UCSF pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists via our busy inpatient consultation service and several multidisciplinary clinics (Birthmarks/Vascular Anomalies, Disorders of Cornification, Genetics/Derm, Ectodermal Dysplasia, Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease, and Derm/Rheum). Because we have served the SF Bay Area for more than 3 decades, we see a high volume of both complex and common skin problems in a diverse patient population. UCSF Pediatric Dermatology has a rich history and a strong reputation for excellence. We are passionate about education, and our fellowship graduates will leave the program prepared to embark on their chosen career pathways with a valuable set of clinical, academic, and leadership skills.
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