1998, 2000, 2002 & 2004 Conferences

2004 Nevus Outreach Conference in Columbus, Ohio

One hundred seventy-two attendees, including sixty-eight children, filled the halls and meeting rooms of the Radisson Worthington Hotel with laughter and new and renewed friendships as the Nevus Outreach Conference 2004 got under way today.

Prefacing this fourth biennial conference of the organization was a "most productive" retreat, which was held on Thursday and led by consultant Kathy (Wright) Fox for members of the Board of Directors. Among many tasks accomplished was a rewrite of the mission statement as follows:

Nevus Outreach is dedicated to bringing awareness, providing support, and finding cures for people affected by congenital melanocytic nevi and related disorders.

New information regarding giant nevi research progress by Dr. Ashfaq Marghoob, a physician and researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, was the subject of "Giant Nevi: A to Z." Dr. Marghoob was present at the previous three conferences. Steve Dusza, an epidemiologist and biostatistician for the Department of Dermatology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering works closely with Dr. Marghoob on numerous research projects. He updated those gathered on the existing Nevus Registry. He calls the Registry "a great tool to measure everyone with a large congenital melanocytic nevus, as it has almost 600 cases registered, hundreds more than any other" registry of large congenital melanocytic nevi.

Dr. Joan Fleitas took up the workshop period in the afternoon with an often humorous look at "When the Going Gets Rough - Wear A Helmet." Her presentation was geared toward sensitizing people to what it is like for the family to cope with medical problems. Dr. Fleitas, RN and EdD, is the creator of "Bandaids and Blackboards," a website with strategies for inclusion and many other resources, including how parents can help ease the transition for young children relating to other children and general help with psychosocial issues.

Small conversation group sessions dealing with what to expect from surgery and living with a giant nevus took place along with individual conversations and questions with the doctors. Closing the day with a pizza and pool party, one of the participants commented "I am gaining so much information and caring support from this Conference and these people, and I look forward to tomorrow."

2002 Nevus Outreach Conference

The Nevus Outreach 2002 Conference was held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

2000 Nevus Outreach Conference

The 2000 Nevus Outreach Conference was held in Mountain Home, Colorado

1998 Nevus Outreach Conference

The  very first Nevus Outreach Conference was held in 1998 in Orlando, Florida.