Thomas L.H. Hocker, MD

Thomas Hocker, M.D., M.Phil., is an internationally-recognized skin cancer expert, best-selling Dermatology textbook author, and one of the thought leaders in the field of Mohs and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery. Dr. Hocker is one of fewer than 30 Triple Board-Certified and Triple Fellowship-Trained Mohs Surgeons in the world, and is the first African-American male in United States history to achieve this distinction. He is certified through the American Board of Dermatology, American Board of Pathology, and American College of Mohs Surgery. Dr. Hocker is the founding Director of Dermatologic Surgery at UMKC/University Health Department of Dermatology and has been honored as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor®.

Dr. Hocker received his education at many of the top schools in the world, including Yale University, University of Cambridge (England), Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic. He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed research studies and manuscripts, and is a frequently invited lecturer at national Dermatology and skin cancer conferences. He has served as President of both the Kansas City Dermatology Society and the Kansas Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery Society.

A native of San Jose, California, Dr. Hocker’s academic beginnings were quite humble. He attended a severely underfunded public high school in “east-side” San Jose and first experienced any degree of personal success outside of the classroom, rather than within it. Although Silver Creek was a high school known more for its violence and dropout rates than its academic success stories, there were a few exceptional role models and mentors who beneficially shaped the lives of many at-risk students. It was through the exceptional dedication and caring of Coach Poynter, Coach Slayton and the other Track & Field coaches that Thomas first learned the three primary ingredients for achieving excellence: solid planning + consistent disciplined effort + faith to persevere. As a result of lessons learned through Track & Field, Thomas ultimately achieved success both inside and outside the classroom. He was recruited to run track at numerous Division I colleges and elected to attend Yale University, where he went on to become a multi-year Ivy League champion in the 400-meter hurdles and 4 x 400-meter relay. As a result of his intense work ethic and discipline inside and outside of the classrooms at Yale, Dr. Hocker was named as Verizon 1st Team Academic All-American, Pfizer Research Scholar, and Yale’s top scholar-athlete for the class of 2002. Dr. Hocker was also an inductee into the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.

Upon graduation from Yale, Dr. Hocker was selected as one of only 12 students across the country to be awarded the highly-prestigious Churchill Fellowship, which granted him the opportunity to attend the University of Cambridge (England). At Cambridge, Dr. Hocker learned about the British approach to higher learning, gained greater world perspective, and received his Master's degree in Organic Chemistry.

Dr. Hocker returned from England to attend Harvard Medical School. At Harvard, Dr. Hocker worked with many of the world’s leaders in Dermatology and skin cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Hocker published multiple research articles on skin cancer and presented at the prestigious national meeting for the American Society for Cutaneous Oncology. Dr. Hocker graduated from Harvard Medical School with Honors for his research work on melanoma genetics with Dr. Hensin Tsao. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Hocker completed a 1-year Transitional Internship at the Stanford University affiliated hospital, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

Dr. Hocker received his Dermatology training at the Mayo Clinic, which is widely recognized one of the world’s premier academic Dermatology Departments. The Mayo Clinic is what is known as a “Tertiary Academic Center” for Dermatology, which means that it is considered the highest caliber of academic hospitals, and has some of the best experts across multiple medical and surgical specialties. Tertiary academic centers are where other academic hospitals send their most challenging cases. At the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Hocker was exposed to the most challenging Dermatology cases and took advantage of the opportunity by publishing numerous scholarly papers and presenting at multiple national meetings. Dr. Hocker won the “Duels in Dermatopathology” competition at the national meeting of the American Society of Dermatopathology, and twice scored in the top percentile nationally in the Dermatology in-training examination. As a second year Mayo Clinic resident, Dr. Hocker founded a new lecture series on Pharmacology for his co-residents and served as one of the course’s two principal lecturers. In recognition of his scholarly and research contributions throughout residency, Mayo Clinic named him the Harold O. Perry Most Outstanding Scholar—a distinction given only 3 times in the preceding 15 years.

To gain a new perspective on Dermatology and skin cancer, Dr. Hocker sought training at a different top-tier Dermatology Department for his Dermatopathology fellowship training. He attended the University of Michigan, which has long been home to one of the best multidisciplinary skin cancer centers in the country. Similar to the Mayo Clinic, the University of Michigan is also known as a “Tertiary academic center” and therefore receives some of the country’s most challenging and perplexing skin pathology cases. This unique exposure gave Dr. Hocker a remarkable level of experience and expertise with highly-challenging skin pathology cases in general, and skin cancer pathology in particular. At the conclusion of his fellowship, Dr. Hocker became double Board-Certified in Dermatology and Dermatopathology.

Dr. Hocker concluded his formal education by returning to the Mayo Clinic for an intensive 1-year fellowship in Mohs and advanced reconstructive plastic surgery. In doing so, Dr. Hocker became the first African-American male in history to be Triple Fellowship-Trained and Triple Board-Certified in Mohs Surgery, Dermatopathology and Dermatology. At Mayo Clinic, he was blessed to have the opportunity to learn from many of the world’s premier Mohs and reconstructive surgeons. Dr. Hocker is a proud member and Fellow of the American College of Mohs Surgery, the most prestigious and selective Mohs Surgery certifying body.

After completing his training, Dr. Hocker moved to the Kansas City area to be around family. He has been in private practice in Overland Park and involved in Dermatology resident education since his arrival. He has successfully performed over 23,000 Mohs surgery cases, and over 2,000 cases of Mohs surgery for melanoma, making him one of the most skilled and experienced Mohs surgeons in the Midwestern United States. Because of his unique expertise and training, Dr. Hocker routinely cares for patients traveling from states outside of the Midwest, and has even cared for a handful of patients traveling from abroad. Dr. Hocker has been honored to provide charity surgical care to patients of the KC Care Clinic, and others who have minimal means.

As a believer, Dr. Hocker aims to utilize all of the gifts and experiences he has been blessed with to serve others with compassion, competence and genuine care. Outside of work, Dr. Hocker loves spending time with his children, his soulmate, his friends, himself, and alone with God. He is forever grateful to be in the position to be of service to others.