2023 Medical Professional Award Winners

This award honors highly meritorious efforts by health professionals in the field of psoriatic disease education.

Boni E. Elewski, M.D.

Professor and Chair

Director of Clinical Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Department of Dermatology 

Dr. Elewski is Professor and Chair, Director of Clinical Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Dermatology. She has research interests which include the diagnosis and treatment of acne, alopecia, atopic dermatitis, cutaneous fungal infections, hidradenitis suppurativa, nail disease, psoriasis, and rosacea. She has been the principal investigator of numerous clinical research projects. Many of these have been industry-sponsored or investigator-initiated clinical trials. Dr. Elewski is a world-renowned expert dermatologist and teacher. Dr. Elewski has had outstanding success in recruiting psoriasis patients for numerous clinical trials in the past, and currently.

This award recognizes a physician for outstanding achievements in improving psoriatic disease clinical practice and playing a major or lasting role with national impact in improving the quality of life of patients and their families. The winner of this award is actively involved in the clinical care of patients with psoriatic disease and has an outstanding track record of sharing their expertise with other health care professionals as documented by presentations and/or authorship of books, articles, and reference materials.

Kelly M. Cordoro, M.D.

Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics

University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Kelly Marie Cordoro is a Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the Division Chief of Pediatric Dermatology, the Pediatric Dermatology Fellowship Director, and the McCalmont Family Endowed Professor in Pediatric Dermatology at UCSF. Dr. Cordoro’s clinical focus is complex medical dermatology, particularly inflammatory and autoimmune skin diseases, in children. Her primary clinical and research interest is pediatric psoriasis. Dr. Cordoro formerly received a competitive 3-year Career Development Award from the Dermatology Foundation to study psoriasis in children.  She continued that work as a founding member of the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance (PeDRA) and as the Co-Chair of PeDRA’s Psoriasis Investigator Group. She is the co-founder of the UCSF Pediatric Rheumatology/Dermatology Clinic where she serves patients as a clinician, advocate, educator, and researcher. She is on the medical board of the National Psoriasis Foundation and is a Councilor for the International Psoriasis Council.  Dr. Cordoro is a passionate educator who has won several teaching awards, most recently receiving the UCSF School of Medicine Class of 2022 Sir William Osler Distinguished Teacher Award. She is a skilled clinician and committed mentor who strives to advance the health and overall well-being of children with psoriasis and other skin diseases through compassionate clinical care and rigorous scholarship.

This award recognizes a physician for outstanding achievements in improving psoriatic disease clinical practice and playing a major or lasting role with national impact in improving the quality of life of patients and their families. The winner of this award is actively involved in the clinical care of patients with psoriatic disease and has an outstanding track record of sharing their expertise with other health care professionals as documented by presentations and/or authorship of books, articles, and reference materials.

Soumya M. Reddy, M.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Assistant Professor, Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Co-Director, Psoriatic Arthritis Center

Soumya Reddy, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine's Division of Rheumatology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. At NYU, Dr. Reddy is involved in the care of patients with psoriatic disease, psoriatic arthritis clinical trial research, and teaching of rheumatology fellows, dermatology and internal medicine trainees, and medical students. She also serves as the Co-director of the Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Clinic at NYU providing multi-disciplinary care for psoriatic patients, one of the oldest combined clinics in the United States.

Dr. Reddy completed medical school at Boston University as part of the Accelerated B.A./M.D. Program and then completed her internal medicine residency, chief resident year, and rheumatology fellowship at NYU.

She is on the medical board for the National Psoriasis Foundation and a member of the Arthritis Foundation Psoriatic Arthritis Expert Panel. Additionally, Dr. Reddy is the Founding Treasurer and board member of the Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Clinics Multicenter Advancement Network Consortium (PPACMAN), member of Psoriatic Arthritis Research Consortium (PARC), and member of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA). Her research interests include the evaluation and treatment of psoriatic arthritis with novel therapeutic agents and approaches as well as the benefits of multi-disciplinary care. Dr. Reddy was a member of the committee to develop the American College of Rheumatology/National Psoriasis Foundation guidelines for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and served on the committee for the development of the GRAPPA treatment recommendations for psoriatic arthritis in patients with comorbidities.

This award recognizes a health care professional who has promoted NPF’s mission of improving the lives of people with psoriatic disease through exceptional contributions to the key initiatives of NPF. The winner has been actively involved in NPF at the affiliate, local, or national level within the last five years and has a history of contributions to NPF goals and objectives.

Samuel T. Hwang, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor and Chair of Dermatology

University of California, Davis

Dr. Hwang is a board-certified dermatologist with extensive training as a physician-scientist. He has a strong clinical and basic science interest in immunological diseases of the skin, including psoriasis, and in the biology of skin cancers, including melanoma and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Starting as an Investigator and then Senior Investigator at NIH, Dr. Hwang has had over 15 years of experience in the field of leukocyte and cancer cell trafficking and has had a long-standing interest in the role of chemokine receptors, including CCR6 and CXCR4 in immune cells as well as cancer cells. In 2008 he was appointed the Thomas J. Russell Family and Community Dermatologists Chair and Professor of Dermatology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has published more than 65 original and review articles in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cancer Research, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Archives of Dermatology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA). In 2016, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Society for Investigative Dermatology and serves as section editor for the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and the Journal of Dermatological Sciences. He was elected by his peers to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2007 and has lectured internationally and nationally.

This award recognizes an advanced provider for outstanding achievements in improving psoriatic disease clinical practice and playing a major or lasting role with national impact in improving the quality of life of patients and their families.

Jason D. Oberdick, PA-C

Certified Physician Assistant

Forefront Dermatology

Jason Oberdick is an NCCPA board-certified and state-licensed Physician Assistant specially trained in dermatology. Jason earned his Bachelor’s degree in Health Science and his Master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Jason is a member of the NPF, AAPA, SDPA, and the Pittsburgh Academy of Dermatology.