Afton Chavez, M.D.

Dr. Chavez is a dermatologist currently undergoing fellowship training in Mohs surgery at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. She completed dermatology residency at Brown University and graduated with honors from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. In 2018, she completed the AID Virtual Magic Wand Scholars program as well as an externship with Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals, and now oversees the AID Externship Program. She also led an award-winning team at the 2019 MIT dermatology hackathon for a wearable skin monitoring device. Her interests beyond skin cancer and surgery are in innovation, global health, human rights, integrative dermatology, and healthcare environmental design.

James Allred, M.D.

Dr. Allred is a board-certified dermatologist working in private practice in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He earned his M.D. at the University of Utah and from his work during residency at University of Texas Southwestern in Austin, he developed multiple medical devices of which four have been successfully out-licensed. Dr. Allred has also founded multiple dermatology related startups, including RxThat, and he is a co-founder and research & development advisor to ClearifiRx.

Jamie Breslin, Ph.D.

Dr. Breslin is the Director of Operations & Partnerships for AID. Previously, she spent 13 years at PTC Therapeutics, Inc. initially in antiviral research and subsequently within corporate development where she held positions within alliance and grant management, and ultimately as director of business development. In 2016 she founded Breslin Consulting LLC, a business development and operational strategy consulting firm. Dr. Breslin received her B.S. from Florida Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. from North Carolina State University.

Olga Afanasiev, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Afanasiev is a board-certified dermatologist with a passion for problem-driven research, innovation and technology development. Dr. Afanasiev is a practicing dermatologist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Sutter Health. As part of the Hacking Dermatology steering committee, Dr. Afanasiev has co-organized several hackathons that have resulted in successful early stage startups. She also co-founded HealthAI, a group that brings together Stanford physicians and engineers to solve problems at scale in healthcare. Dr. Afanasiev obtained her MD/PhD with Alpha Omega Alpha honors at University of Washington in Seattle. Her graduate studies were done in Dr. Paul Nghiem’s lab, where she identified how to use the immune system to fight the virus-associated Merkel cell cancer (which led to the approval to PD1 inhibitors for MCC). She obtained her BA degree from University of California, Berkeley.

Steve Xu, M.D., M.Sc.
Dr. Xu is a physician-engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, board-certified dermatologist, and academic. Currently, he is the Medical Director of the Center of Bio-Integrated Electronics (CBIE) at Northwestern University and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from Rice University, a Masters in Health Policy, Planning, and Finance from The London School of Economics, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School with special honors where he was a Soros Fellow. He completed his residency training in dermatology at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University where he still actively practices. Dr. Xu has led the development and commercialization of several medical device technologies both within dermatology outside the field. He is a co-founder and business development advisor to ClearifiRx.

Adam Raff, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Raff is the Director of Translational Medicine at LEO Pharma. He is a board-certified dermatologist and physician-scientist. Dr. Raff previously worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) on developing point-of-care diagnostics for infectious and inflammatory diseases of the skin. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his medical degree and Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. Dr. Raff completed his dermatology residency at Harvard and his post-doctoral fellowship at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH.

Brandon Kirsch, M.D.

Dr. Kirsch is a board-certified dermatologist and the Vice President, Therapeutic Area Head – Dermatology at the global biopharmaceutical company Arena Pharmaceuticals. At Arena, he is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction for the clinical science team. Dr. Kirsch is also a co-founder and member of the board of directors at ClearifiRx.com, a dermatologist-led online platform providing personalized prescriptions to treat skin conditions. Dr. Kirsch started his career as a lawyer and holds law degrees from the University of Western Ontario (LL.B.) and Georgetown (LL.M. Securities and Financial Regulation). He completed medical school at Brown University, an internship at the Mayo Clinic and dermatology residency at the University of North Carolina.

Kachiu Lee, M.D.

Dr. Lee is a board-certified dermatologist and is a nationally renowned, Ivy-league trained expert on injectable and laser treatment for medical and cosmetic applications. Prior to joining Main Line Center for Laser Surgery, Dr. Lee served as Director of the Laser and Cosmetics Unit at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University. Dr. Lee did her dermatology residency training at Brown University, during which she served as Chief Resident. After residency, she completed a prestigious photomedicine, laser and cosmetic fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Lilit Garibyan, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Garibyan is a board-certified dermatologist, an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and a physician-scientist at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. Her work focuses on innovative biomedical translational research aimed at identifying novel treatments for dermatologic diseases and beyond. She co-invented and developed a novel platform technology that uses injectable coolant for selective targeting of lipid rich tissue. Dr. Garibyan is also leading an effort to establish a problem-based innovation model led by clinicians interested in solving clinical problems through the Magic Wand™ Initiative. Dr. Garibyan received her undergraduate degree from the University of California Los Angeles, her M.D. from Harvard Medical School and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Yakir Levin, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Levin is a board-certified dermatologist, an Instructor in Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, and a physician scientist at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. His work focuses on the development of novel technologies to address unmet clinical needs in dermatology and related fields and he is currently developing novel approaches to the nonsurgical treatment of congenital melanocytic nevi and to the treatment of hyperhidrosis. Dr. Levin completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Stanford University and his dermatology residency at Boston University. Following these, he completed a clinical and research fellowship at the MGH laser and cosmetic center and at the Wellman Center.