Thomas L.H. Hocker, MD

Dr. Hocker is a native of San Jose, California, where he was an All-State Track & Field athlete. He was recruited to run track at numerous Division I colleges and ultimately elected to attend Yale University. At Yale, he was a multi-year champion in the 400-meter hurdles and 4 x 400-meter relay. He was a Verizon 1st Team Academic All-American scholar-athlete, Pfizer Research Fellow, voted the top male scholar-athlete for Yale University’s class of 2002, and was an inductee into the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. Upon graduation, he was one of only 12 students across the USA to be awarded the highly prestigious Churchill Fellowship, which allowed him to pursue research at the University of Cambridge (England), where he received his Master's degree in Organic Chemistry. He subsequently attended Harvard Medical School, where he graduated with Honors for his melanoma research.

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, and subsequently received his Dermatology training at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

At the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Hocker published numerous scholarly papers, presented at multiple national meetings, and twice scored in the top percentile in the Dermatology in-training examination, a test given to all residents across the nation. Upon graduation, Mayo Clinic named him the Harold O. Perry Most Outstanding Scholar, a distinction given only 3 times in the preceding 15 years. He subsequently traveled to the University of Michigan for his Dermatopathology fellowship, widely considered to be one of the top 3 skin cancer treatment centers in the nation, where he gained expertise in skin cancer pathology. He concluded his many years of training by returning to the Mayo Clinic for an intensive 1-year fellowship in Mohs and advanced reconstructive surgery, where he studied under many of the world’s premier skin cancer and reconstructive surgeons.