New Frontiers in Pathology Conference

Conference Organizers
		Jeffrey Myers, MD A. James French Professor of Diagnostic Pathology Professor, Thoracic 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 Professor, 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 Professor, Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Pathology University of Michigan Dr. Westerhoff graduated from the Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions and Honors College of the 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, an education committee member of the Hans Popper Hepatopathology Society, a member of the Laennec Society, and a member of the congress scientific advisory board of the World Organization for Specialized Studies on Diseases of the Esophagus (OESO).

		Sara Abbott, MD Assistant Professor, Breast Pathology University of Michigan Dr. Sara Abbott is a surgical pathologist with an interest in women's health, particularly breast pathology. She received her undergraduate degree from Duke University. She later received her medical degree with special qualifications in biomedical research from Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University where she also obtained a master's degree in clinical research. She then completed her AP/CP residency and fellowship in breast and gynecologic pathology at Duke University in 2017. She also completed a second fellowship in Cancer Biomarker Pathology (with a focus in breast cancer biomarkers) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2018. She began her faculty career at Wake Forest Baptist Health before joining the Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology as an assistant professor in 2019. Her research interests include prognostic markers in breast cancer. She was awarded the International Society of Breast Pathology and Breast Cancer Research Foundation Award for Best Trainee Abstract in 2018 for her work on the role of ESR1 mutations in the development of endocrine therapy resistance in advanced breast cancer. She also has an interest in medical education, having completed a master's degree in teaching at Duke University and served as a national representative on the ACGME Pathology Residency Review Committee.

		Kyle Conway, MD, JD Assistant Professor, Neuropathology University of Michigan Kyle is from Crandon, Wisconsin, and attended medical school at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, he practiced law, including judicial clerkships with the Honorable David T. Prosser, Jr. on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Honorable Randolph W. Peterson on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. He is participating in the anatomic pathology/neuropathology track and is particularly interested in the combination of forensic pathology and neuropathology.