Jeffrey P. Callen, MD was born in Chicago, Il. His family moved to Evanston in the early 1950s and he attended Evanston Township High School, graduating in 1965. He then attended the University of Wisconsin (1965-8) and University of Michigan Medical School (1968-72). He completed residencies in internal medicine and dermatology at the University of Michigan (1975 and 1977 respectively). He is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine (1975) and the American Board of Dermatology (1977, 1999, 2009, 2019) and participates in the American Board of Dermatology’s Maintenance of Certification program.

In 1977 Dr. Callen joined the faculty at the University of Louisville. He was the Residency program director from 1984-2016 and was appointed as Chief of the Division of Dermatology in 1988, a position that he still holds. On November 1, 2022, he was appointed as the first Lafayette G. Owen Endowed Chair of Dermatology.

            He has served on the Board of Directors of the Dermatology Foundation (1983-8), the American Academy of Dermatology (1994-8), Association of Professors of Dermatology (1996-9), the American Board of Dermatology, Inc. (2003-2011), the Medical Dermatology Society (2001-2005) and the American Dermatologic Association (2009-2013). He has been Vice-President of the AAD (2004-5), and ABD (2011). He has been the President of the Medical Dermatology Society (2006-8), Association of Professors of Dermatology (2016-2018) and the American Dermatological Association (2020-2021). He has served on the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s review committee (2017- 2022).

He was the Associate Editor of the JAMA Dermatology from 2004-2018 and continues to serve on its editorial board. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Dermatology Section of UpToDate. He is the Image Section Editor for VisualDx.

He is an honorary member of the following organizations: Honorary Corresponding Member, Pacific Dermatologic Association, 1987; Honorary Fellow, North American Clinical Dermatologic Society, April 2007; Medical Dermatology Society, February 2011; Florida Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery – May 2012; and the American Academy of Dermatology, March 2013. He is a Master of Rheumatology (2016) and was the first dermatologist to receive this designation.

He has been listed in Best Doctors annually since 1992 and has received the American Academy of Dermatology Thomas Pearson, PhD Education Award. He was given the Medical Dermatology Society’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2011. He was selected by the American Academy of Dermatology to receive the 2017 Master Dermatologist Award. In 2018, the Dermatology Foundation selected him for their Lifetime Career Educator Award.

Locally, he has served on the boards of the Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family and Vocational Services, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Foundation, and the Speed Art Museum. He and his wife are currently heading the Cinephile Collector’s group for the Speed Art Museum. He has also been recently appointed to the Louisville Jewish Film Festival committee.