As we commemorate Black History Month, we celebrate this year’s theme of Black Health & Wellness, which dovetails beautifully with the Skin of Color Society’s year-long theme,“Diversity in Action: Science, Healthcare and Society.”

This year’s Black History Month inspires us to reflect on the Skin of Color Society’s evolution as a leading global organization dedicated to advancing skin of color dermatology to achieve health equity and excellence in patient care –from our early roots, to our present-day stature and our trajectory into the future. 

First, let’s turn back the pages of modern history to pay tribute to the Skin of Color Society Founder, Susan C. Taylor, MD, FAAD and the SOCS Founding Members who worked together to bring this unique and vibrant organization to life in 2004. 

Under Dr. Taylor’s leadership, the group envisioned an organization that would promote the study and greater understanding of skin of color, and one day, would become the global go-to authority in this specialty–a dream that has been beautifully fulfilled over time.

The following Founding Members supported Dr. Taylor in establishing SOCS:

Valerie D. Callender, MD, FAAD
Vincent DeLeo, MD, FAAD
Pearl Grimes, MD, FAAD 
Aditya Gupta, MD 
Rebat Halder, MD, FAAD 
Victoria Holloway, MD, FAAD 
Sewon Kang, MD, FAAD  
A. Paul Kelly, MD, FAAD 
Henry W. Lim, MD, FAAD
Amit G. Pandya, MD, FAAD 
Marta I. Rendon, MD, FAAD 
David Rodriquez, MD, FAAD 
Miguel Sanchez, MD, FAAD
Richard Scher, MD, FAAD

We salute these dermatology greats and visionaries, and thank them for paving the way for future generations of dermatologists and history-makers in the making.

As we look at where we are today and where we are heading, it is thrilling to see how the early vision at SOCS’ founding has come to fruition—and beyond—as SOCS continues to expand globally with many important, exciting initiatives and offerings.

Today, SOCS continues to advance the field forward through innovative programs and seminal contributions to the field by SOCS members, including:

The  upcoming 18th Annual Scientific Symposium–a world-class gathering of skin of color dermatology experts and researchers from around the world;
Our first-ever Summit focusing on  “Meeting the Challenge: Diversity in Clinical Trials”;
Our groundbreaking learning management system, the SOCS Dermatology E-Learning +Equity Platform (DEEP);
A growing portfolio of grant awards for Research, Mentorship & Observership, Career Development, Skin of Color Fellowship and Innovations (coming soon!).

We look forward to sharing news about the next generation of SOCS historymakers in the future!