Amy Paller

Amy Paller, MS, MD, 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 (SBDRC) at Northwestern. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Brown University and her medical degree from Stanford University. Dr. Paller completed residency training in both Pediatrics and Dermatology at Northwestern University and her postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of North Carolina. She served as Chief of Pediatric Dermatology at Children’s Memorial Hospital (now Lurie Children’s) until she became Chair of Dermatology at Northwestern in 2004. 

An author of more than 600 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Paller has also written or edited several major textbooks in dermatology, among them Hurwitz’s Clinical Pediatric Dermatology (now 6th edition) 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 diseases. 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, among them the Society for Investigative Dermatology, Society for Pediatric Dermatology, and Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance. She 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. She has received several honors for her scholarship, leadership and mentorship, among them election to the American Association of Physicians and the American Dermatological Association. Selected from among her many awards are the inaugural Paula Stern Outstanding Women in Science and Medicine Award from Northwestern, the Stephen Rothman Award from the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the Tanioku Kihei Memorial Award from the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology, the International Award from the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, the Martin D. Carter Mentorship Award from the American Skin Association, the inaugural Hall of Fame Award from the Society for Pediatric Dermatology and, most recently, the Tripartite Award from Northwestern. She is an honorary member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology.