Our Committees
ILDS Committees and Working Groups provide leadership and oversight of the work undertaken by the ILDS to improve skin health for all.
ILDS Committees
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee exercises the authority of the Board and the ILDS in the management of organisational affairs between meetings of the full Board.
Chair: Henry Lim
Secretary General: María Ivonne Arellano Mendoza
Treasurer: Stephen Shumack
Claire Fuller, Jorge Ocampo-Candiani, Venkataram Mysore, Ketty Peris
Finance and Fundraising Committee
The Finance and Fundraising Committee is responsible for ensuring that appropriate financial policies and procedures are in place and in practice to comply with UK Charity and Company fiscal and legal requirements. It is also responsible for general budgetary considerations and fundraising.
Chair: Stephen Shumack
Vice-Chair: George Hruza
Roy Chan, Ketty Peris, Rashmi Sarkar
International Foundation for Dermatology (IFD) Committee
The International Foundation for Dermatology (IFD) Committee is chaired by the Chair of the IFD. Its goal is to improve dermatology in under-served areas of the world; to improve the care of patients with skin and sexually transmitted disease who do not have access to specialist skills and to develop financial sustainability through working with the Finance and Fundraising Committee to identify additional funding streams. It oversees the IFD grants programmes including ILDS DermLink.
Chair: Claire Fuller
Vice-Chair: Esther Freeman*
Luca Borradori, Qianjin Lu, Daudi Mavura*, Valeska Padovese*, Ricardo Romiti, Rashmi Sarkar, Stephen Shumack
World Congress Scientific Programme Committee
The ILDS World Congress Scientific Programme Committee plans the scientific programme of the World Congress of Dermatology liaising with the National Organising Committee which is responsible for the operational, social and financial management of the Congress.
Chair: Lars French
Vice-Chair: Manabu Fujimoto
Roy Chan, Jorge Ocampo-Candiani, Mariel Isa, Martin Röcken, Jennifer Austin (GlobalSkin)*, Luca Borradori, Ncoza Dlova, Dirk Elston*, George Hruza, Qianjin Lu, Ketty Peris, Lidia Rudnicka, Ricardo Romiti, Rashmi Sarkar, Antonio Torrelo
ILDS-WHO Committee
The ILDS-WHO Committee is responsible for ILDS’ interactions with the WHO including maintaining the ILDS’ official relations status and ensuring that there are appropriate plans in place which address ILDS and WHO’s strategic interests. Current areas of work/interest include: revising and rationalising the Classification used in ICD-11 for skin and related diseases; collaboration with the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Department to improve recognition of NTDs by front line health-care workers using skin signs of disease (development of training aids, teaching activities); assistance (by providing specialist input) with revisions to the WHO list of essential medicines; collaboration on ultraviolet radiation (outdoor workers) and skin cancer; interaction around the production of the “Global Psoriasis Atlas”; interaction around optimising healthy skin ageing as part of the WHO ageing and health initiative.
Chair: Lars French
Vice-Chair: Ricardo Romiti
Esther Freeman*, Claire Fuller, Chris Griffiths*, George Hruza, Luca Borradori, Harvey Lui*, Valeska Padovese*
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee is responsible for advising the ILDS on its membership strategy. This includes overseeing recruitment of new members and developing member services and member engagement in ILDS activities.
Chair: George Hruza
María Ivonne Arellano Mendoza, Jin Ho Chung, Ncoza Dlova, Manabu Fujimoto
Awards Committee
The Awards Committee is responsible for developing processes and assessing nominations for ILDS Awards (Certificates of Appreciation, Young Dermatologist Achievement Awards and the Medal for Achievements in Global Dermatology) and presents its findings to the Board. Through its Awards programme, the ILDS recognises individuals who have made significant contributions to worldwide dermatology.
Chair: Venkat Mysore
Manabu Fujimoto, Jorge Ocampo-Candiani, Ketty Peris, Lidia Rudnicka
Communications Committee
The Communications Committee is responsible for advising the ILDS on its communications strategy and providing practical support. This includes advising on the development of communications mechanisms and materials including the ILDS website, social media and exhibits; and editing the ILDS newsletter.
Chair: Lidia Rudnicka
Vice Chair: Rashmi Sarkar
Roy Chan, Stephen Shumack, Esther Freeman
World Skin Summit Programme Committee
This Committee is responsible for the development of the programme for the World Skin Summit.
Chair: Martin Röcken
Vice-Chair: Ncoza Dlova
Qianjin Lu, Venkat Mysore, Jorge Ocampo-Candiani, Lidia Rudnicka
WCD2031 Guidelines Development and Bid Review Committee
This committee will develop the guidelines for bidding to host WCD2031. Once a call for bids has been sent out, the committee will review all bids for the WCD 2031.
Chair: Roy Chan
Jin Ho Chung, George Hruza, Ketty Peris, Antonio Torrelo
Grand Challenges in Global Skin Health Committee
After the success of the Global Psoriasis Atlas (GPA), more global report and atlas projects are being developed. This new committee ensures that there is collaboration between all teams working on these reports and atlases.
Chair: Henry Lim
María Ivonne Arellano Mendoza, Chris Griffiths* (GPA), Carsten Flohr** (GADA), Khaled Ezzedine** (GLOVA), Gregor Jemec**/Dorra Bouazzi** (GHiSA)
Global Partnerships for Education and Care (GPEC) Committee
This new committee was established after the launch of the GPEC programme in April 2023, to further develop the procedures and review applications as well a progress of confirmed partnerships.
Chair: María Ivonne Arellano Mendoza
Ramesh Bhat*, Lars French, Henry Lim, Antonio Torrelo, Stephen Shumack
Patients' Organisations Committee
This is a committee to oversee and advise on the development of ILDS’ engagement with patients’ organisations including the development of a policy and approach on engagement and in specific initiatives and activities.
More information on the Committee’s activities can be found here.
Chair: Luca Borradori
Vice-Chair: Rashmi Sarkar
Antonio Torrelo, Visnja Zaborski Breton (representing the International Alliance of Dermatology Patient Organizations (
GlobalSkin))
Education Committee
This committee reviews all proposals for educational partnerships and coordinates resources that are developed by or in collaboration with the ILDS.
Chair: Rashmi Sarkar
Vice Chair: Ricardo Romiti
Antonio Torrelo, Esther Freeman, Venkat Maysore, Stephen Shumack and Tammie Ferringer (Special Advisor)
ILDS Working Groups
World Skin Health Day Working Group
World Skin Health Day is a collaboration between the ILDS and the International Society for Dermatology (ISD). The Working Group is comprised of members of each society and is responsible for approving World Skin Health Day activity applications and advising on the strategy for the development of World Skin Health Day.
Chair: Henry Lim
María Ivonne Arellano Mendoza, Nellie Konnikov (ISD President), George Reizner, Ncoza Dlova, Qianjin Lu, Gilnar Batpenova, Kamer Gunduz
Partnerships with Patient Organisations
The ILDS is committed to the inclusion of the patient voice in our work and we collaborate with patients’ organisations across a range of areas.
How we work with Patient OrganisationsNotes: President and Secretary-General are ex-officio on all committees; *Special Advisors (co-opted member of committee), **External Advisors (co-opted committee member)