The Vitiligo
Innovators Program™

Recognizing individuals for their impact on the vitiligo community.

The 2024 recipients have been selected and the 2025 nomination cycle is now open until October 31, 2025.

Celebrating Positive Contributions to the Vitiligo Community!

Created to recognize positive contributions for the vitiligo community, the Vitiligo Innovators Program™ (VIP) seeks to acknowledge patients, caregivers, advocates, researchers, medical students, residents and/or healthcare providers for their extraordinary efforts to bring understanding, compassion and strength to the vitiligo community.

Incyte, a global pharmaceutical company, is proud to celebrate individuals who are dedicated to supporting and making a positive impact on people living with vitiligo.

The 2025 nomination cycle is now open.

Eligibility

Eligibility Information

The following individuals are eligible to be nominated:

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Community Innovators: An advocate or non-medical individual who has made a significant positive impact in supporting, or caring for, people with vitiligo. Types of work recognized could include significant advocating efforts on behalf of the community, impactfully driving awareness of vitiligo, or even being a caregiver to a person living with vitiligo in a meaningful way.
Healthcare Innovators: Healthcare professional (i.e., nurse, PA, physician) who provides extraordinary care and/or education for people with vitiligo. This person has shown their ability to improve or enhance patient care. Types of work recognized could include dedication or care that goes "above and beyond" for patients.
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Rising Innovators: Promising resident, medical student or researcher or early-career physician (up to 10 years post-residency) who has demonstrated significant contributions to advancing the understanding of vitiligo and/or disease management. Types of work recognized could include authoring or presenting relevant vitiligo research.

Criteria for nominations are as follows:

  • Choose only one category for nomination
  • A completed nomination form must be submitted by the deadline provided
  • The achievements of the individual must be relevant and recent (i.e., should have had a positive impact within the vitiligo community, must have taken place within the last 3-5 years)
  • Individuals must be nominated by others
  • Individuals being nominated must be aware of the nomination
  • The nomination must be compliant with any institutional rules and guidelines
  • Nominated individuals must reside in one or more of the 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and or Puerto Rico

The following people are not eligible for nomination:

  • Employees or agents of lncyte, or lncyte vendors
  • Current program year judging panel members
  • Vitiligo Innovators Program recipients of the previous cycle

Recognition details:

  • Up to three recipients (one per category) will be recognized
  • Each category is open to individual recipients
  • Recipients in each category will receive a physical award recognizing their dedication to individual care

Individuals may not be recognized two years in a row or for a length of time agreed upon by the judging panel.

Incyte reserves the right to modify the eligibility requirements at any time.

Have additional questions?
Check out our FAQ page

Meet the Judges

Meet the Judges

Meet our 2025 VIP judging panel!

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Erika Page

Erika Page is a patient advocate and the Founder and Editor of Living Dappled, a media brand and digital community for women with vitiligo. After getting vitiligo at the age of seven, she lost 100% of her skin’s pigment over 25 years; she founded the platform to help educate, support and inspire the 1% of the population with this condition. Erika has spoken at the U.S. World Vitiligo Day conference and has been featured in PEOPLE, WebMD and Love What Matters.

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Melissa Hughley

Melissa Hughley is a wife and mother of three, an entrepreneur turned influencer and vitiligo advocate. With a mission to encourage people living with any skin condition to live an authentic and unapologetic life, Melissa has used her platform to empower her audience to do the same. Melissa believes that visibility will help normalize vitiligo, and in connection with others in the community, can help close those gaps of uncertainty, lack of knowledge, self esteem issues or fears associated with having a skin condition such as vitiligo. This has fueled her commitment to continue to help people living with not only vitiligo but any visible skin condition.

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Richard Huggins, MD, FAAD

Dr. Richard Huggins is dedicated to serving the vitiligo community through a variety of different roles. He is a dermatologist in the Vitiligo Research and Treatment Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan; medical director of V-Strong, a vitiligo support community in southeast Michigan; and the lead for the vitiligo support group section of the Global Vitiligo Foundation. Vitiligo is Dr. Huggins’ primary clinical focus. He runs a vitiligo clinic, participates in clinical trials and contributes to ongoing research in the field. He has also authored peer-reviewed research articles and textbook chapters on the condition, as well as presented at national and international medical conferences. Dr. Huggins is especially passionate about support organizations for people with vitiligo. He works to foster collaboration among support groups and strengthen connections between individuals with vitiligo and the medical community. He also mentors medical students interested in vitiligo, connecting them with support organizations that can benefit from their involvement.

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Heli Patel, MD

Dr. Heli Patel is a medical resident and graduate of Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. Her clinical and research interests include chronic debilitating conditions such as vitiligo and alopecia areata. She has completed a clinical trials research fellowship at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, where she investigated barriers to medication adherence. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers in top journals and serves as a peer reviewer for academic journals. She has worked extensively in the global health setting, including traveling to expand access to medical services in rural areas and giving invited talks at national conferences. She is also a children's book writer and illustrator. She is the founder of a non-profit organization and holds a patent for a medical device. Most importantly, she is incredibly passionate about vitiligo, a condition that affects a disproportionate number of South Asians.

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Heather Woolery-Lloyd, MD, FAAD

Dr. Heather Woolery-Lloyd is an internationally recognized expert in skin of color. She lectures nationally and internationally on skin of color. Dr. Woolery-Lloyd participates extensively in clinical research, serving as an investigator for clinical trials with an emphasis on increasing inclusion of skin of color patients. She has authored over 70 peer-reviewed papers and has also been featured as an expert dermatologist in various publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Forbes. Dr. Woolery-Lloyd is an active member of the Skin of Color Society and the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) where she was recently honored with the AAD's Presidential Citation for her commitment to education and research in dermatology.

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Incyte will not provide any advice or input during the judging process and all decisions made by the judging panel are made independently and are final. These judges will receive compensation for their services from Incyte, based on fair market value.

Judging Criteria

Judging Criteria – What makes a
Vitiligo Innovator?

The judging panel will consider the following criteria when evaluating each award nomination:

Checkmark iconDoes the nominee meet the eligibility requirements?

Documents iconDoes the nomination contain all of the necessary details?

Stopwatch iconAre the achievements of the nominated individual relevant and recent (i.e., have they made a positive impact within the vitiligo community within the last 3-5 years)?

Incyte reserves the right to change the judging criteria at any time.

Program Process

Program Process

When completing a nomination:

  • Describe the reason(s) the nominee meets the criteria for dedication and positive impact in detail, sharing specific examples/interactions and information on the nominee’s impact.
  • Examples include, but are not limited to, information such as:
    • Patient or family testimony about how these efforts positively impacted people living with vitiligo
    • Ways the nominee worked to help and overcome challenges
    • Peer-reviewed journal articles/publications

VIP recipient selection overview:

  • A judging panel made up of five judges will be responsible for deciding who should be recognized.
  • Recognition will be conferred based upon the judging panel’s review of nominations for each category and pre-established and published rating system prior to the recognition event.
  • Nominators and those nominated will be communicated with depending upon their circumstances.
  • Individuals sending incomplete nominations will be notified and advised that they must complete nominations by the deadline.

Have additional questions?
Check out our FAQ page