I feel blessed to have spent my life in an industry full of passionate people. It allowed me to pursue my goals with unbridled passion, while countless enthusiastic people came to my aid and cheered me on. If you are like me, you immerse yourself into your passions. Year by year, I resolved to navigate, climb, adapt, and overcome – ever keeping my eyes upon the horizon and pressing ahead, knowing we had the support of an industry. As a child growing up in Texas, I was often told there’s no quit in me. That is, until this day, in which I embrace the realization – this part of my journey is complete.

Twenty-six years ago, I took on the enormous responsibility of publishing DERMASCOPE Magazine. My wife, Patricia, and I spent the previous seven years operating our spa. Yet, I found myself always hungry for more. I soaked up everything from aromatherapy to zen massage, but I still felt insatiable. This is because, early in my journey, fate had delivered me to the Dallas Institute of Aesthetics. It was there that I met and befriended Ron Renee, the founder of Aesthetics International Association (AIA) and DERMASCOPE Magazine. This relationship gave me a door inside the developing world of professional skin care and full access to the incredible pioneers within. In 1993, fate would deliver us back to those doors to begin my new passion with DERMASCOPE and AIA. 

The three greatest passions in my life have been my family, career, and education. I am blessed to have been able to merge them into one life. While Patricia and I immersed ourselves in our new obsession, our children have endeared and endured this journey with us, every step of the way. In my mind, I can still see my daughter, Amanda, at four years old, standing with her mother, handing out DERMASCOPE magazines to the attendees arriving at our five annual Aesthetics World Expositions. Indeed, she was only 12 when she announced that, one day, she would be the publisher of DERMASCOPE Magazine. That was the same year she began working in the editorial department.

So, now, our day has arrived. Patricia and I take great pride in Amanda and her contributions to DERMASCOPE and to the industry. She willfully and passionately embraces the responsibilities and opportunities ahead. Amanda has already brought technology, innovative resources, and fresh talent to a budding new generation of professionals. DERMASCOPE now has a larger audience and networking capabilities than Ron Renee could have ever imagined. Amanda honors her mother and I in the greatest ways possible; she has embraced our values, principles, and passions. She has given us the opportunity to pay our good fortunes forward by allowing us to focus on the charity we created, the Grace Village Foundation. We will now be afforded the blessings of helping disadvantaged women and children through this foundation, while knowing the future of DERMASCOPE is in very capable, forward-thinking hands.

Patricia and I express our deepest gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of professionals who have supported DERMASCOPE through 45 years. Our love and affection to the hundreds of incredible friends and associates who have contributed, supported, and steered us along the way. We offer our continued encouragement and support to all professional aestheticians across the globe.

With that, I give you the best I have – my daughter, Amanda, to lead you through another generation of DERMASCOPE Magazine’s love affair with skin care.