Cheryl M. Burgess, MD, has gained national acclaim for her work in
clinical and cosmetic dermatology.
WHEN SHE WAS a medical student at the Howard
University College of Medicine, Cheryl M. Burgess, MD, landed
a summer job at the National Institutes of Health Department of
Dermatology as part of its Public Health Service. Two others had
been offered the same job—and had quickly quit.
"It was our job to physically examine and interact with
patients who had the most severe, obscure dermatoses,"
she says. "These people had disfi guring conditions such as
neurofi bromatosis. Some of them worked in circus traveling
shows, such as 'the Elephant Man,'" says Dr. Burgess.
But where others shied away, Dr. Burgess found her calling.
"Many of those patients told me, 'You are the fi rst person who
ever sat and talked to me. You are the fi rst person to touch me.'
I realized how much I was helping people. And by the end of the
summer I knew that this was what I wanted to do."
Capital Care
By Maryann Hammers
Photography by Mike Morgan
50 MARCH 2015
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MedEsthetics