MedEsthetics magazines offers business education and in-depth coverage of the latest noninvasive cosmetic procedures for physicians and practice managers working in the medical aesthetics industry.
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Despite a strong interest in medicine—and her mother's encouragement to pursue that goal—Dr. Eberting struggled with the decision to become a doctor, largely because her religion, Latter Day Saints, stresses the importance of mother- hood. "In fact, I tried to avoid being a doctor and ended up changing my major at Brigham Young University four times from international relations to Japanese, then nursing to international business and fi nally human biology, all while trying to fi nd something I preferred over medicine," she says. "Obviously, I never found it." Eventually, it was her older brother who sealed the deal when he said to her, "Look, you can be 12 years older, or you can be 12 years older and a doctor. You might as well just be a doctor." The sentiment clicked and she applied to medical school. Mentors Who Made a Difference During medical school at the University of Utah, Dr. Eberting drifted fi rst toward rheumatology and the challenge of auto- immune disease. "I thought I wanted to be a rheumatologist because I was—and still am—very interested in autoimmune disease," she says. "However in medical school I found that dermatology was indeed my greatest love." She did two years of residency at Roger Williams Medical Center, a Boston University-affi liated program in Providence, Rhode Island, and met her husband at the airport the day she moved there. Later, she did a clinical fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are two special mentors Dr. Eberting credits with helping her become the woman and doctor she is today: Sancy Leachman, MD, PhD, and Maria L. Turner, MD. "I worked in Sancy's lab during medical school at the University of Utah. She is one of the most altruistic human beings on the Earth in addition to being incredibly intelligent, driven, and motivating to everyone around her," says Dr. Eberting. "Sancy used to stay in her lab late at night mentoring me (even though she had a new baby) and helping me polish my presentations for the rest of the department, just so I would look good and feel confi dent." Dr. Turner ran the dermatology consult service at NIH, and Dr. Eberting groveled to get the opportunity to rotate with her during her second year of residency. "I had such an incredible time that Maria invited me to come and do a clinical research fellowship the next year in lieu of my third year of residency," she says. "We had to move heaven and earth to make that happen, but we did it. I credit Maria with giving me my clinical skills. I used to call her the Yoda of dermatology because she could make the most crazy diagnoses from the door—she taught me to look at things with a completely different eye than any other attending ever had." An Entrepreneurial Spirit Taking an entrepreneurial cue from her mother, Dr. Eberting put herself through medical school by building a nationally distributed import business that she started at age 23 after returning from an 18-month mission in Japan. "On the way home from my mission, I stopped in Thailand and found some handmade paper that I thought was really beautiful, and I decided to sell it to pay for my schooling," she says. "On an initial investment of $55 (which was all I had left after serving my mission), I built the business up to sales of about $400,000 a year. I worked in my warehouse three nights a week until 3 a.m., only to be back in class by 7 a.m. the next morning." She was able to fi nance her medical school education without any debt and sold the business a few months before fi nishing her NIH fellowship. Although she was raised in Bellevue, Washington, Dr. Eberting moved to Alpine, Utah, after training to be closer to several of her siblings who were living in the area. "Alpine is actually the highest income per capita city in Utah. It's a beautiful place, with a highly educated population and a num- ber of tech company startups nearby—and it's full of people who are interested in cosmetic procedures," she says. "I wanted to practice within a mile of my home so I could be accessible to my children (I now have four). It has proved to be a wonderful setup for me." In 2006, she opened Alpine Dermatology & Laser Cen- ter, where she initially tried a cash-only model but found it wasn't successful. "Since I did not borrow any money to start THE ENTREPRENEUR 40 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 | Med Esthetics The three-story Alpine Dermatology & Laser Center houses a medical dermatology practice, medspa and skincare distribution center.