Her passions include teaching and mentoring of pathology and dermatology residents, as well as the dermatopathology fellow, and running a busy diagnostic service with over 1,500 new melanoma patients annually. She has been director of the dermatopathology fellowship at USF since 2011. Dr. Messina's research interests include pathology of the sentinel node, biomarkers of prognosis in cutaneous melanoma, and etiology and treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma. Dr. Messina has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her research covers pathologic evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes, special applications of sentinel lymphadenectomy, and molecular studies of spectrum of melanocytic neoplasia.