Biography:

Vickie received her BA from Amherst College, and completed her MD and PhD degrees at New York University’s Medical Scientist Training Program working with Susan Schwab studying T cell and natural killer cell trafficking via the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) pathway. Using a novel S1P reporter, she showed how S1P gradients position natural killer cells within the lymph node, where they prevent pathogen escape from lymphoid tissues. Her additional work investigated how S1P signaling regulates T cell function, survival, and trafficking. In 2019, she established JRNLclub.org, an online scientific video platform dedicated to making scientific advances more accessible by publishing short talks on recent research.

Vickie completed her preliminary internal medicine year at Pennsylvania Hospital, and then began her dermatology training at Penn in 2020.  In 2022, she joined John Wherry’s lab as a post-doc and is also co-mentored by Aimee Payne. She currently studies the inflammatory skin disease hidradenitis suppurativa to untangle the immunologic dysregulation and seek better therapeutic targets for patients.

T32-Funded research supported the following: 

Grants:

Dermatologist Investigator Research Fellowship, Dermatology Foundation 2023

SBDRC Pilot & Feasibility Minigrant, Penn SBDRC, 2022

Danby Research Grant, Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation, 2022