Valerie A. Fitzhugh

Valerie A. Fitzhugh is an American pathologist and Associate Professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School as well as an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is the Chair of the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers and the Chair at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as well. Fitzhugh specializes in bone and soft tissue pathology and cytopathology and has made the Pathology Power List by The Pathologist Magazine in 2016, 2018, and 2019. She is involved in educating pathology residents and she actively uses social media as a platform for education and for improving diversity in pathology and she also studies how effective social media is at enhancing accurate communication of science and medicine.

Early life and education Fitzhugh attended Rutgers State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick for her undergraduate degree. She was the captain of the fencing team for her last two years of college, and was a four-time varsity letter winner during her time at Rutgers. Towards the end of her medical degree, she completed an elective in forensic pathology and this inspired her to pursue a medical career in pathology instead of orthopaedic surgery. In 2005, she transferred back to her medical alma mater, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School, to complete her residency training in pathology. In 2013, UMDNJ merged with Rutgers University and Fitzhugh's title became Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She co-authored a paper in 2020 exploring how cytopathologists share specimens and interesting cases through Twitter using the #FNAFriday hashtag. They explored the composition of tweets in this study and found that tweets include a variety of images and data and they also found that Papanicolau is the most common stain used among the tweets they analyzed. They found that at the 2018 Association of Pathology Chairs conference, most speakers reported the tweets about their work as correctly depicting their research, thus highlighting the positive impact that social media can have at conferences. She has also written about her personal experiences with idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Awards and honors

2018, 2019 Pathology Power List from The Pathologist Magazine 2017, 2018, 2019 Golden Apple Teaching Award Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School 2017 Top Five Featured Pathologist, 40 Under Forty 2017 from the American Society of Clinical Pathology 2016 Rising Stars in Pathology-Pathology Power List 2016, The Pathologist Magazine

Select publications

Kransdorf MJ, Link TM, Palmer WE, Fitzhugh VA. Skeletal Radiology: the year in review 2019 [published online ahead of print, 2020 May 28]. Skeletal Radiol. 2020; Ziemba, Y, Razzano, D, Allen, T, Booth, A, Anderson, S, Champeaux, A, Feldman, M, Fitzhugh, V, Gittens, S, Grider, M, Gupta, M, Hanos, C.T., Kelly, K, Kothari, T, Laudadio, J, Lin, A, Mirza, K, Montone, K, Prieto, V, Remick, D, Riddle, N, Schubert, M, Suskie, K, Zafar, N, Robboy, S, Markwood, P. Social Media Engagement at Academic Conferences: Report of the Association of Pathology Chairs 2018 and 2019 Annual Meeting Social Media Committee. Academic Pathology. 2020. In Press. Lepe M, Oltulu P, Canepa M, et al. #EBUSTwitter: Novel Use of Social Media for Conception, Coordination, and Completion of an International, Multicenter Pathology Study [published online ahead of print, 2019 Dec 17]. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2019; Fitzhugh VA, Katava G, Wenokor C, Roche N, Beebe KS. Giant cell tumor of bone with secondary aneurysmal bone cyst-like change producing β-human chorionic gonadotropin. Skeletal Radiol. 2014; 43(6):831‐834. Fitzhugh VA, Wenokor C, Beebe KS, Aisner SC. Leiomyoma of deep soft tissue mimicking calcific myonecrosis. Radiol Case Rep. 2016; 11(4):430‐433. Published 2016 Sep 17. Fitzhugh VA, Heller DS. Mesenchymal lesions of the vulva. J Low Genit Tract Dis. 2011; 15(2):134‐145. Fitzhugh VA, Kim SA, Borcich A, Zhu H, Wu M, Szporn AH, Chen H. Metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma presenting as a pancreatic mass by computed tomography scan and mimicking a primary neuroendocrine tumor: a potential pitfall in aspiration cytology. Diagnostic Cytopathology. 37:915-9, 2009 Fitzhugh VA, Heller DS, Murphy, G. Adenomyomatous polyp of the endometrium: a case report. Journal of Reproductive Medicine. 53:231-34, 2008.