Biography
A graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology (BS, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), Dr. Skovgard’s engineering background fuels his passion for surgical and biosynthetic innovation. He earned his MD at Tulane University School of Medicine and then completed residency in general surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell. During training, he spent two years in a NIH-funded research fellowship at MSKCC under the mentorship of Dr. Prasad Adusumilli, focusing on translational Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for thoracic malignancies, including lung cancer and mesothelioma. His work—featured on the cover of Cancer Immunology Research (2023) and now being developed into clinical trial—has been widely published and presented nationally, including as a finalist for the prestigious Walton C. Lillehei Research Forum.
Dr. Skovgard is certified by the American Board of Surgery. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society, the Gold Humanism Honor Society, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Skovgard’s interests include robotic surgery, and immunotherapeutics for lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and mesothelioma. He has completed the grant-funded AATS Graham Fellowship in Advanced Robotic Thoracic Surgery. While a native of California, Dr. Skovgard has a global upbringing having grown up in Venezuala, China, and South Korea before returning to the United States for college education. He is multilingual and brings a multicultural perspective to patient care. He and his wife, Dr. Therese Gadomski, an accomplished OB-GYN, along with their young children, Sloane and Owen, are thrilled to join the UCSF community.