Elise A. Olsen, MD, professor of dermatology and medicine, recently received the Dermatology Foundation’s Lifetime Career Educator Award at the Dermatology Foundation Annual Meeting of Membership in Denver.
The award recognized Olsen’s influential body of work in hair disorders and cutaneous lymphoma, including her role in establishing foundational classifications, developing standardized tools for assessment of each condition, and guidelines of care that have transformed both diagnosis and treatment.
Olsen has been a founder and president of three educational societies (United States Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation, American Hair Research Society, and North Carolina Dermatology Association) and former president of two others (International Society for Cutaneous Lymphomas and Southeastern Consortium for Dermatology).
Olsen is committed to helping residents, dermatologists, and other clinicians diagnose and treat patients with hair loss or hair overgrowth. She’s the founder and director of the Duke Hair Disorders Research and Treatment Center and sees patients with hair loss/overgrowth in consultation with referring doctors. She’s particularly interested in extensive or treatment-resistant alopecia areata, scarring hair loss, and chemotherapy-related hair loss.
Olsen chaired the first and current national project on cicatricial (scarring) alopecia with a focus on standardizing diagnostic criteria and assessment techniques. The hope is that this work will further research on understanding the cause and facilitate development of new treatments for these common, emotionally challenging, and treatment-resistant disorders. She has created two multicenter registries on cicatricial alopecia with plans for an international registry.
In addition to her focus on hair disorders, Olsen also specializes in researching and treating cutaneous lymphoma. She’s the founder of the United States Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation national registry and first author on the classification and staging publications for cutaneous lymphoma. She founded and serves as director of the Duke Cutaneous Lymphoma Research and Treatment Center and the Duke Dermatopharmacology Study Center.
Olsen has been involved in more than 170 dermatological and oncologic clinical studies. She’s a member of the Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke Clinical Research Institute and represents Duke on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network T-cell lymphoma and cutaneous lymphoma committees.
Throughout her career at Duke, Olsen has taught and mentored countless dermatology residents, dermatopharmacology fellows, and medical students; she also led the dermatology elective for medical students from 1983 to 1996. She’s been honored with multiple visiting professorships and invited lectures and has chaired numerous forums, symposia, and sessions for the American Academy of Dermatology and other national and international professional organizations.
“The Dermatology Foundation (DF) is devoted to improving the quality of life of patients with dermatological disorders by supporting education and research, especially of our young trainees. I have ascribed to this mission my entire career and am so honored by this special DF award.”
— Elise A. Olsen, MD