Alicia J. Little, MD, PhD

Alicia Little, MD, PhD, is a dermatologist with expertise in women’s skin health and autoimmunity. She is the director of the Vulvar Dermatology Clinic, which is dedicated to compassionate, interdisciplinary management of vulvar skin diseases.

Dr. Little specializes in skin disease of pregnancy and vulvar skin diseases; autoimmune skin diseases including cutaneous lupus, dermatomyositis, morphea, lichen sclerosus, and lichen planus; and inflammatory skin diseases including psoriasis, atopic dermatitis (eczema), and rosacea. She also handles general dermatology, acne, and skin cancer screening.

“I enjoy meeting new patients and developing lasting relationships with them,” Dr. Little says. “I love looking at my schedule and recognizing patients who I have helped with uncomfortable rashes, acne, or skin cancers, and continuing to support them over the years with any new or chronic skin conditions.”

Dermatology, she says, allows her to see patients of all ages and to use her background in immunology since many skin diseases and rashes are caused by an overactive immune system.

“As dermatologists, we have the wonderful privilege of seeing our patients get better quite literally, since their symptoms are often also visible to us on the skin,” she says.

When not caring for her patients, Dr. Little, who is an assistant professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, conducts research on the immune cells responsible for autoimmune skin disease. “By studying what is going wrong to cause the body to attack itself, I hope that we can identify targets for future treatments to improve patients’ lives,” she says.