Robert H. Young, MD

Pathologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
Subspecialty Head, Gynecologic Pathology and Emeritus Head, Genitourinary Pathology services
Robert E. Scully Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School
A. James French Lecturer

Dr. Young has written extensively on the morphologic features of ovarian and testicular cancer, several of the studies representing the largest reported experience with certain unusual neoplasms. He has also written papers on benign lesions that mimic cancer. Dr. Young has co-authored an Atlas of Gynecological Pathology. He is also a co-author with the late Dr. Robert Scully of the 3rd Series Fascicle on Tumors of the ovary, and with others of two other works in the same series, on tumors of the testis, and tumors of the prostate gland and related structures. He is director of annual courses on surgical pathology and gynecological pathology.

Dr. Young has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles in the literature and about 100 reviews and chapters in books. In collaboration with David Louis, MD, Pathologist in Chief at Mass General, he edited Keen Minds to Explore the Dark Continents of Disease: A History of the Pathology Services at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is director of a number of courses in Pathology for practicing pathologists offered through Harvard Medical School and has lectured throughout the world. Dr. Young was recently honored at the 2015 The One Hundred celebration, which is an awareness and fundraising initiative that celebrates hope in the cancer community.

Celina Kleer, MD

Director, Breast Pathology Program
University of Michigan
Plenary Lecturer

Dr. Kleer received her medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1993. She began her residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and completed her training at the University of Michigan in 1999. During her last year of training, she served as a Surgical Pathology Fellow with special interest in breast pathology under the mentorship of Dr. Harold Oberman. In 1999 she joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2005, and to full Professor with tenure in 2011. In 2007, Dr. Kleer was honored as the first Harold A. Oberman Collegiate Professor in Pathology, a position she currently holds. In addition, she is the chief of the Breast Pathology Program at the University of Michigan. She has been an active member of the Breast Care Center since 1999. Dr. Kleer is the principal investigator of an NIH and DOD-funded research laboratory at the Cancer Center working to understand mechanisms of breast cancer invasion and metastasis, and to develop useful breast tissue-based biomarkers. Her work bridges basic science and clinical application. Dr. Kleer has been participating in NIH and DOD study sections and was a permanent member of the NIH Study Section Tumor Progression and Metastasis from 2008-2012. In addition to her research and clinical work, Dr. Kleer is a dedicated mentor to medical students, graduate students, and physicians both in the laboratory and in surgical pathology. Many of Dr. Kleer’s trainees have gone on to highly successful academic careers in the US and abroad. In 2013, she was the distinguished recipient of the Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award from the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology. In 2014, Dr. Kleer was inducted into the League of Research Excellence at the University of Michigan Medical School and into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

Lori Lowe, MD

Professor, Dermatopathology
University of Michigan
Plenary Lecturer

Dr. Lowe received her undergraduate degree from Occidental College, Los Angeles, California in 1981 and her M.D. degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas in 1985. She did a transitional internship at St. Joseph's Hospital, Houston, Texas from 1985-1986 and then was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. From 1987-1989, she completed her residency training in dermatology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, followed by a Dermatopathology Fellowship at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, from 1990-1991. Dr. Lowe is board certified in both Dermatology and Dermatopathology.

In 1990, Dr. Lowe served as an Instructor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas. She moved to the Department of Dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, where she was a Senior Staff Physician and Director of Dermatopathology from 1991-1996. In 1996 she joined the faculty of the Departments of Pathology and Dermatology at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, as Assistant Professor, where she was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998, and to Professor in 2004. She served as the Director of Dermatopathology in the Department of Pathology from 1996-2012.

While at the University of Michigan Medical School, Dr. Lowe has been actively involved in the dermatopathology service, teaching, and academic pursuits. She has been recognized institutionally and nationally as an educator and clinician. In 2013, Dr. Lowe received the Walter Nickel Teaching Award given by the American Society of Dermatopathology and also received the Outstanding Clinician of the Year Award bestowed by the University of Michigan Medical School. In 2015, she was inducted into the University of Michigan League of Clinical Excellence. Dr. Lowe received the William B. Taylor Resident Teaching Award from the Department of Dermatology, the University of Michigan in 1999 and 2005 for exemplary teaching. She has been recognized annually since 2003 in America's Top Doctors for Cancer by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. She has served on national committees, including the American Board of Dermatology, Dermatopathology Test Committee and the American Board of Pathology, Dermatopathology Test Committee and has served on the editorial boards of both the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and Cancer. Dr. Lowe is the author or co-author of more than 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Conference Organizers

Jeffrey Myers, MD

A. James French Professor and Interim Director of Anatomic Pathology
University of Michigan

Dr. Myers received a B.A. in Biology from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota (1977), and an M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri (1981) after completing his first two years of medical school training at the University of North Dakota. He completed residency training at Washington University, Barnes and Affiliated Hospitals from 1981-1984 where he also served as an American Cancer Society Regular Clinical Fellow. In 1985 he completed a fellowship in Surgical and Pulmonary Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Pathology. In 1989, he accepted a position at the Mayo Clinic Minnesota where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1991 and Professor in 1996. While at the Mayo Clinic, he served as Chair, Division of Anatomic Pathology (1993-2002) and Chair of the Clinical Practice Committee's Innovation Work Group (2003-2005).

Dr. Myers joined the faculty of the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan in January 2006 as the A. James French Professor of Diagnostic Pathology and Director, Division of Anatomic Pathology. In 2011 he was also appointed Director of MLabs. He serves as an Associate Director of the University of Michigan Medical Innovation Center.

Dr. Myers has served as an invited speaker nationally and internationally on over 300 occasions and has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, abstracts, and book chapters. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Mayo Distinguished Clinician Award, the F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service and President's Awards from the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, and the Outstanding Clinician Award from the University of Michigan Medical School. He is a member of a number of professional societies including the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, College of American Pathologists, American Society of Clinical Pathology, Arthur Purdy Stout Society, the American Thoracic Society, and the Michigan Society of Pathologists.

Lauren Smith, MD

Director of Hematopathology
University of Michigan

Dr. Lauren Smith received her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan Honors College with highest distinction in 1992. She spent four years working in a neurogenetics laboratory at the University of San Francisco with Dr. Nelson Freimer. For the next two years, she worked as a manuscript editor for Dr. Donald Klein, a psychiatrist, at Columbia University. In 1998, she began medical school at the University of Michigan. She was awarded AOA in her junior year and was president of the UM AOA Chapter the following year. She completed her residency in anatomic/clinical pathology and fellowship in hematopathology from 2002-2007.

In July 2007 she began her faculty career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. She was appointed Fellowship Director in 2013. She was appointed the Director of the Ethics Path of Excellence in the University of Michigan Medical School in 2013. She became the permanent Director of the Hematopathology Section in 2016. In addition, she serves as a Hospital Ethicist at Michigan Medicine.

Maria Westerhoff, MD

Associate Professor
Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Pathology
University of Michigan

Dr. Westerhoff graduated from the Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions and Honors College of University of Illinois-Chicago and received her medical degree in 2006. She then completed her pathology residency and fellowship in gastrointestinal and hepatic pathology at the University of Chicago in 2011. She was a faculty member at the University of Washington from 2011, where she was promoted to associate professor in 2016.

Dr. Westerhoff joined the University of Michigan in 2017. She is the chair of the education committee of the Rodger Haggitt Gastrointestinal Pathology Society, education committee member of the Hans Popper Hepatopathology Society, a member of the Laennec Society, and member of the congress scientific advisory board of the World Organization for Specialized Studies on Diseases of the Esophagus (OESO).

University of Michigan Speakers