February, 2004Lenore S. Kakita, MD: Honored as the Dermatology Foundation's 2003 Practitioner of the Year

Lenore S. Kakita, MD, a member of the clinical dermatology faculty at UCLA
for more than 30 years and with a private practice in Glendale, CA, was honored
with the Dermatology Foundation's Practitioner of the Year Award as an
exceptional member of the specialty. This distinguished award was presented to
her on February 7, 2004 at the Foundation's Annual Meeting during the annual
convention of the American Academy of Dermatology in Washington, DC.
The Practitioner of the Year Award, given now for the 27th consecutive year,
celebrates dermatologists who have given years of exceptional patient care,
allied with teaching and clinical research, as well as service to the specialty.
Dr. Kakita received her BS at UC-Berkeley and her MD from UCSF, then interned
at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. She completed her residency at UCLA, and
immediately joined the faculty. Her nominators describe her as "a caring
and compassionate clinician, a superb communicator, and innovative in her
treatment techniques," and "a perfect role model and mentor-a shining
star in dermatology." She was recently named to Best Doctors in America.
In addition to her private practice, academic responsibilities, clinical
research, and active family life, Dr. Kakita also specializes in "taking on
new challenges for the betterment of a specialty she loves," a colleague
observes. These challenges have involved significant dermatology and medical
organizations at the metropolitan, state, regional, national, and international
levels. She has led the Los Angeles Dermatological Society, the California
Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery and the Women's Dermatologic
Society. Within the AAD Dr. Kakita has functioned on an exceptional number and
variety of committees, task forces, panels and study groups, assumed many
responsibilities on the Advisory Board, and been a liaison with the AMA. She is
deeply concerned with patient- and health care-related issues, and works
actively for legislation favorable to the specialty and to patients needing
dermatologic care.
The Dermatology Foundation is a nonprofit organization created in 1964 by
concerned dermatologists to provide a national organization for advancing
patient care through funded research, and is now second only to the federal
government as a source of funding for investigative dermatology. The Foundation
raises funds from within both the specialty and from the cosmetic,
pharmaceutical and surgical industries to support a research program of the
highest quality that is also exceptional in its breadth and depth.
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