VRF Scientific Advisory Board
We’re welcoming Dr. Nellie Konnikov to the VRF Scientific Advisory Board — while celebrating a major new chapter for long-standing Board member Prof. Jorge Ocampo-Candiani.
A nice piece of news from the VRF Scientific Advisory Board. Actually, two.
Welcome aboard, Dr. Nellie Konnikov
We’re very happy to welcome Dr. Nellie Konnikov, Immediate Past President of the International Society of Dermatology, to the Board.
We already know what it’s like to work alongside Nellie through our collaboration with ISD on World Skin Health Day, so this feels less like an introduction and more like a natural next step.
She brings deep clinical experience, an international perspective and, just as importantly, a real gift for bringing people together around a shared purpose.
And there’s more to celebrate
Prof. Jorge Ocampo-Candiani, a long-standing member of our Scientific Advisory Board, has been elected President-Elect of the International League of Dermatological Societies.
He will take up the ILDS presidency at the close of the 26th World Congress of Dermatology in Guadalajara in June 2027 — a Congress he is also leading as President.
For us, that means a little extra.
Jorge was Honorary President of World Vitiligo Day 2022 in Mexico, where he helped lead a campaign that brought vitiligo to the Mexican Senate, the medical community and the wider public under the theme “Learning to Live with Vitiligo.”
So yes, this is an advisory board update.
But it is also a reminder of something we value at VRF: the people around the table matter. Good science matters. Experience matters. And relationships built over years are what turn all of that into real progress.
Suggested Reading
World Vitiligo Day 2022 🇲🇽
Led by Dr. Jorge Ocampo-Candiani and Dr. Rossana Llergo Valdez, WVD 2022 brought vitiligo education and advocacy to the Mexican Senate, the medical community and patients under the theme “Learning to Live with Vitiligo.”
Shining Light on Vitiligo in Rome
At the 2025 International Congress of Dermatology in Rome, vitiligo took center stage in several major sessions under the leadership of ISD President Dr. Nellie Konnikov, bringing together science, clinical practice and global advocacy.