Who Are We?

Our dedicated team of doctors and staff are committed to ensuring the highest quality care for patients. Our doctors are attending physicians and full time faculty members at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. All are Board Certified in Rheumatology. Other members of our Scleroderma Center include a clinical nurse, and several research and patient care coordinators and medical assistants who assist in the care of our patients.

Physicians and Faculty

Fredrick Wigley, M.D.

  • Physician-Scientist
  • Director of The Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center
  • Professor of Medicine

Dr. Wigley received his M.D. degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine.  He completed an internship and residency at Johns Hopkins where he also trained in a postdoctoral fellowship program.

Dr. Wigley is a physician-scientist whose specialty is Raynaud’s phenomenon and scleroderma. He founded The Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center with Robert A. Wise, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins Division of Pulmonary Medicine.

Dr. Wigley’s research focuses on the events that cause scleroderma and on the signs and symptoms of scleroderma. He is testing new treatments for Raynaud’s phenomenon and scleroderma.

Dr. Wigley has been honored with two American College of Rheumatology awards over the past couple years.  He received the ACR Distinguished Clinician Scholar Award in 2009 and the ACR Masters Award in 2011.

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Laura Hummers, M.D., ScM

  • Physician-Scientist
  • Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Hummer earned her M.D. degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry.  She completed her internship and residency at Thomas Jefferson University and a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Hummers is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on properties of blood that could help predict outcomes for patients with scleroderma.  She is also interested in understanding the natural course of the disease and developing new treatment for scleroderma.  She has a special interest in a rare disease called scleromyxedema.

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Francesco Boin, M.D.

  • Physician-Scientist
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Boin received his M.D. degree from the University of Padova Medical School (Italy).  He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) and a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical and experimental rheumatology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Boin is interested in Translational Research:  studies that apply  basic research technology directly to study patients’ clinical disease.

Dr. Boin’s research focuses on the cellular biology of immune cells and the mechanisms of autoimmunity in scleroderma. His goal is to identify reliable laboratory tools that can help investigate the causes of scleroderma, effectively measure disease activity, monitor treatments and help predict clinical outcomes in scleroderma patients.

Dr. Boin is also interested in other immune-mediated fibrosing skin disorders and with particular focus on a condition called eosinophilic fasciitis.

boin Who Are We?

Ami Shah, M.D.

  • Physician-Scientist
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Shah earned her M.D. degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency at Stanford University and a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Shah is a physician-scientist whose research interests include cardiovascular complications in scleroderma as well as the connection between scleroderma and cancer.

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Staff

Regina M. Greco, R.N., M.S.N.

Regina Greco is the clinical nurse/program manager at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center. Ms. Greco is responsible for all daily clinical operations, including management of clinical staff and assisting physicians with patient care. Her involvement with patients, families, and physicians is critical to the clinical operations of the Center.

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Kandice Moore

Kandice Moore is a medical office coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center. Ms. Moore manages new patient referrals, patient scheduling, prescriptions, medical disability forms, patient clinic activities, and clinical office operations.

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Consuelo Laws

Consuelo Laws is a medical office coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center. Ms. Laws manages new patient referrals, patient scheduling, prescriptions, medical disability forms, patient clinic activities, and clinical office operations.

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Pam Hill

Pam Hill is administrative coordinator for Dr. Fredrick M. Wigley and the other physicians at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center.  She oversees physician scheduling and administrative functions such as grant proposals, coordination of meetings, ordering supplies, and other administrative matters.

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Research Coordinators

Cynthia Anderson

Cynthia Anderson is the Clinical Research Coordinator at the Center.   She is responsible for organizing and managing clinical research projects, interacting with sponsoring companies, supporting clinical researchers and interacting with other members of our research team.

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Margaret Sampedro

Margaret Sampedro is a Research Coordinator at the Center. She is responsibile for assisting with clinical research projects and data entry.

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Adrianne Woods

Adrianne Wood is research data manager at the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center. Ms. Wood manages the research database used for clinical and epidemiological research.  She also organizes clinical research projects.

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Emily Calvert

Emily Calvert is a research assistant who is responsible for data entry into the database, providing additional help for clinical projects and maintenance of research materials.  She also assists the research coordinator.

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Tanya Moore

Tanya Moore is a research assistant who is responsible for obtaining blood samples and other patient materials, processing, storing and transporting clinical samples for research purposes.  She also assists the research coordinator.

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Brandon Boring

Brandon Boring is a full time research technician assisting Dr. Boin in the organization and conduction of many research translational projects on scleroderma. He is trained into basic research techniques and in particular into flow cytometry, including sample processing, data acquisition and data analysis. His contribution has been essential to maintain a steady patient recruitment rate and to organize proper handling and storage of patient’s samples for the IRIS (Immune Response In Scleroderma) cohort study.

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Affiliated Trainees

Rebecca Manno, M.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Manno received her M.D. degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she also completed her internship and residency training. She currently is completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Manno’s research interests are in aging and scleroderma. Her research focuses on the impact of older age at scleroderma onset and the effect of aging with scleroderma.

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Zsuzsanna McMahan, M.D.

  • Post-Doctoral Fellow of Medicine

Dr. McMahan received her M.D. degree from The University of Texas at Houston School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency training at UT Southwestern in Dallas.  She currently is completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. McMahan’s research interests are related to blood vessel development and rheumatic diseases with a special interest in scleroderma.

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Tricia Cottrell

  • MD-PhD Student

Tricia Cottrell is an MD-PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  She is focused on doing an epidemiologic project of scleroderma interstitial lung disease.

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Julie Paik, M.D.

  • Post-Doctoral Fellow of Medicine

Dr. Paik received her M.D. degree from The George Washington University School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency training at UCLA-Cedars-Sinai/West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles, California. She is currently completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Paik’s research interest is in scleroderma myopathy. Her research is focused on the clinical characterization of scleroderma patients affected with myopathy.

 

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 Andrea Fava, M.D.

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Andrea Fava received his M.D. degree from San Raffaele Vita-Salute University in Milan, Italy.  He worked as a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD and at San Raffaele Scientific Park in Milan, Italy studying the role of viruses in autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Fava’s current research in Dr. Francesco Boin’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins focuses on the cellular immunobiology of scleroderma.  His work aims to characterize the abnormalities of the immune cell function in patients with scleroderma and to identify novel biomarkers to monitor disease activity and response to therapy.

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Specialists

The Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center is proud of its association with excellent physicians and scientist who are experts in treating the various conditions that occur in patients with scleroderma.  In the earliest days of the Center, Dr. Wigley turned to colleagues from throughout Johns Hopkins, asking them to lend their expertise. As a result, patients at The Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center have the comfort of knowing they are in the hands of this group of extraordinary physicians.

Robert Wise M.D.

  • Pulmonologist
  • Professor of Medicine

Dr. Robert Wise is an expert in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  He and Dr. Wigley have worked together since the 1970s to advance the understanding of lung diseases in patients with scleroderma and in developing new treatments of scleroderma lung disease.

Paul M. Hassoun, M.D.

  • Pulmonologist
  • Professor of Medicine
  • Director of the Johns Hopkins Pulmonary Hypertension Center

Dr. Hassoun uses state-of-the-art approaches to treating scleroderma patients who develop pulmonary hypertension and, is now the Director of an NIH funded research program investigating the cause and treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension in scleroderma.

Jonathan B. Orens, M.D.

  • Pulmonologist
  • Medical Director of Lung Transplantation
  • Professor of Medicine

Dr. Orens has helped make Johns Hopkins one of the few places in the world where lung transplantation is considered for patients with scleroderma.

Reda E. Girgis, MB, Bch

  • Pulmonologist
  • Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Girgis is an expert in pulmonary hypertension and lung transplantation.  He has cared for scleroderma patients with pulmonary hypertension for 15 years and has participated in the development of several novel therapies for this condition.

Scott Lifchez, M.D.

  • Plastic Surgery
  • Assistant Professor

Dr. Lifchez has a special interest in hand reconstruction and microsurgery involving the hand.

James J. Sciubba, DMD, Ph.D.

  • Dental and Oral Medicine
  • Professor of Medicine

Dr. Sciubba, past director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Dental and Oral Medicine has a special interest in Sjögren’s syndrome and the oral complications of scleroderma.

Robert Spence, M.D.

  • Plastic surgeon
  • National Burn Reconstruction Center, Good Samaritan Hospital

Dr. Spence is a plastic surgeon and wound care expert.  He has more than two decades of experience handling the many soft tissue complications of scleroderma including digital ulcers, deformity of the fingers, leg wounds and soft tissue deposits of calcium.

John O. Clarke, M.D.

  • Gastroenterologist
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Clarke has a special interest in swallowing disorders, esophageal disorders, gastrointestinal reflux disease, and motility disorders.

Derek M. Fine, M.D.

  • Nephrologist
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Fine is an experienced kidney specialist who understands scleroderma and how the  kidneys can be involved.  He helps diagnose and manage complex kidney disease in scleroderma patients.

Andrew Mammen, M.D., Ph.D.

  • Neurology/Neuromuscular
  • Assistant Professor of Neurology and Medicine

Dr. Andrew Mammen is an expert in autoimmune myopathies.  He works with the rheumatologists at the Scleroderma Center to diagnose and manage the nerve and muscle complications of patients with rheumatologic diseases.

Jennifer A. Haythornthwaite, Ph.D.

  • Behavioral Psychologist
  • Professor
  • Director of the Behavior Medicine Clinic

Dr. Haythornthwaite is among the first to study the effects of scleroderma-related changes in physical appearance on patients’ social interactions.  She also studies pain and depression associated with chronic illness.

Ginette Hinds, M.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Dermatology
  • Director, Department of Dermatology

Dr. Ginette Hinds is a board-certified dermatologist.  She focuses on skin, hair and nail conditions of people with darker skin tones, such as people of african-american, asian, hispanic, middle eastern and native american descent. As director of the Ethnic Skin Program, she is committed to outstanding clinical care and research in the field of ethnic skin and to community outreach and enrichment. The Ethnic Skin Program focuses on diseases that disproportionately affect people with ethnic skin such as razor bumps, keloids, hair thinning, sarcoidosis, lupus and mycosis fungoides.

Sangeeta Sule, M.D.

  • Pediatric Rheumatologist
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Sule is fully trained in both pediatrics and adult medicine.  She is a full time pediatric rheumatologist with a special interest in childhood onset systemic sclerosis and localized scleroderma.