11/14/2025
Faculty Friday Spotlight on Darrell S. Rigel, M.D., MS, Adjunct Professor of Dermatology at UT Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Darrell Rigel has helped reshape how we find and treat skin cancer. A consultant dermatologist at Dallas’s Cooper Clinic and Clinical Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, he co-developed the now-standard ABCD paradigm for early melanoma detection, work that has guided everyday exams, public education, and policy. His voice is one that our field turns to with over 300+ publications, 1,200+ invited presentations, leadership of the Fall and Winter Clinical Dermatology meetings, and editorship of the textbook Cancer of the Skin. He’s briefed Congress and the FDA, and translated evidence for national media so patients and families know what to watch for.
Dr. Rigel has also served the profession as past president of the AAD, AADA, ASDS, and the American Dermatological Association, as a director of the American Board of Dermatology, and for 26 seasons as consultant dermatologist to the New York Yankees. Honors such as the AAD Gold Medal, the Melanoma Research Foundation Humanitarian Award, and the American Cancer Society National Honor Citation reflect a career centered on impact.
At UTSW, Dr. Rigel brings that same rigor to teaching and collaboration focused on melanoma and other skin cancers, precancers, sun damage, and high-risk nevi, so the next generation carries the work forward.
