Member Awards

Douglas DiRuggiero, DMSc, PA-C, has worked as a dermatology PA for over two decades banking nearly 190,000 dermatology patient encounters! He has shared his considerable knowledge and expertise with countless professional peers during that time, having delivered more than 400 medical lectures.

Cynthia began her military career more than 30 years ago as an air-evac med tech in the United States Air Force Reserves. She earned the rank of staff sergeant before joining the Texas Air National Guard as a first lieutenant physician assistant in 1997.

After graduating from PA school in 2016 in Ohio, Colleen began working in emergency medicine with an eye toward following her passion in dermatology. During her time at the Cleveland Clinic’s Emergency Department, she spent her free time training at Summit Dermatology until she was offered a full-time position as the practice’s first PA in 2019.

In less than four years as a dermatology PA, Peter Young’s passion for learning and medical writing has advanced the profession and broken-down barriers within the dermatologic research community.

Jaime Dunn, a DermPA in Birmingham, Alabama, was a founding member and President of the Alabama Society of Dermatology Professionals in 2017. Jaime was set on creating a place of collaboration for dermatology practice colleagues in the state, where DermPAs and NPs could go for assistance, advice, education, networking, and growth.

Over the last two decades, Erik Sorenson has taken time out of his busy schedule as a DermPA in Lakewood, California to volunteer for the SDPA behind the scenes in important ways that most might not be aware of. During the 2000s, he was the moderator of SDPA’s first online forum, and in 2007, he produced an educational module for the Society on the cutaneous manifestations of systemic disease.

After spending four years as a practicing PA, including three years in dermatology, Professor Mallory Aycock joined the Mercer Physician Assistant Program Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia in November 2015 and began teaching in the Spring of 2016. For the past six years, she has proven to be an outstanding educator, researcher, and advisor.

When developing a lifetime achievement award for SDPA’s new annual awards program, the Membership Committee saw a clear choice not only for the inaugural awardee, but also for the namesake of the award itself: SDPA founder and first president Joe Monroe.

Joe graduated from the University of Oklahoma PA program in 1978 and by 1985 he was practicing dermatology exclusively, as he does to this day.