Stephen H. Mandy, M.D., of Miami Beach, FL, was presented recently with the Samuel J. Stegman, MD, Award for Distinguished Service, the highest honor bestowed by the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS).

The Stegman Award – given to Dr. Mandy during the 2015 ASDS Annual Meeting in Chicago – honors individuals who have significantly contributed to ASDS and to the field of dermatologic surgery. Dr. Mandy has held leadership positions in the Society and is considered an “unsung pioneer” of the dermatologic surgery specialty.

Dr. Mandy, who joined the Society in its early stages in 1973, said he feels “very paternalistic” about ASDS.

“I’ve watched it grow from a very small, nuclear group in the very infancy of dermatologic surgery to the Society as we know it today,” said Mandy, who served on the Board of Directors when the late Samuel Stegman was ASDS President in 1986-87. “They formed this organization to help validate the specialty and to increase its knowledge and grow the specialty. I feel like I was very much on the ground floor of that.”

Dr. Mandy, a voluntary professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Dermatology and owner/director of South Beach Dermatology, carries an extensive track record of engagement with ASDS.

He was ASDS President in 2001-02, served terms on the Board of Directors from 1986-89 and 1996-2003 and was Annual Meeting Program Chair in 1991. Mandy also is proud to have been instrumental in the development the Industry Advisory Council and the Future Leaders Network – two core initiatives that he says “were significant contributions to the vitality of ASDS.”

Most recently, he was elected to the ASDS Nominating Committee. Dr. Mandy – an expert in laser resurfacing, dermabrasion, excisional surgery, injectable fillers and neurotoxins – also has military experience, having served as staff dermatologist at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.

He was nominated for the Stegman Award by David M. Duffy, MD, a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Southern California.

“Steve Mandy is one of the unsung pioneers of dermatologic procedures,” Duffy said. “His areas of expertise and of which he has published include dermabrasion, scar revision, laser resurfacing, neurotoxins – in fact, the whole panoply of procedures which ASDS has been able to teach and promote throughout the dermatologic community.”

Dr. Mandy said he feels blessed to have pursued dermatology, believing the specialty offers prime opportunities to cultivate strong, trusting relationships with patients because of how important their appearance is to them. He says he approaches cosmetic dermatology with “an artist’s eye.”

“I think having an aesthetic eye for what beauty is, what beauty isn’t, and how to achieve beauty or a significant positive appearance change was a very important part of my practice,” he said. “I try to look at every patient as though I was looking at a painting or a photograph and imagining what I could do to make that a more harmonious face.”

Decades of commitment to those patients – and to ASDS – resulted in the Stegman Award, which Dr. Mandy calls “one of those things that is a lifelong honor.”

“I’m grateful to my colleagues for bestowing this honor,” Dr. Mandy said. “I don’t take that lightly because I think there is no higher form of flattery than to have the recognition of your colleagues, and that means a great deal. And it particularly means a great deal since I was friends and worked very closely with Sam Stegman.”