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 Aaron Drucker, MD ScM FRCPC, an associate professor in the Division of Dermatology at the University of Toronto and a scientist at the Women's College Hospital Research Institute in Toronto, ON, Canada. May 2025

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

IEC Councilor Sara Brown, MD PhD FRCPE, holds the Grant Chair of Dermatology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, UK. December 2024

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

IEC Associate Raj Chovatiya, MD PhD MSCI, is clinical associate professor at Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School and founder and director of the Center for Medical Dermatology + Immunology Research in Chicago, Illinois, USA. October 2024. 

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

IEC Councilor Angela Maria Londoño Garcia, MD MSC is a dermatologist, master in epidemiology and autoimmunity, and coordinator of the dermatology postgraduate program at Universidad CES in Medellin, Colombia. June 2024. 

Read the summary of our Q&A with Dr. Londoño Garcia

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.  March 2024.

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. December 2023.

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. September 2023.

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

IEC Councilor 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.  June 2023. 

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

IEC Councilor 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. March 2023.

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. December 2022. 

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. September 2022.

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. June 2022. 

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. April 2022. 

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. December 2021. 

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

IEC President 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. September 2021. 

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

Robert Bissonnette, MD, FRCPC, MSc, who is the current IEC immediate past 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.  June 2021. 

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

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.  April 2021. 

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