We’re shining the ProjectIMPACT spotlight on Beverly Johnson, MD, FAAD. She is a current locum tenens, board-certified dermatologist and has held faculty positions at institutions including Florida State University, University of Florida, and Kindred Hair & Skin. Dr. Johnson is interviewed by Mharlove Andre, a third-year medical student at the University of Florida College of Medicine and VisualDx Student Advisory Board member.
How would you describe your journey to medicine?
Dr. Johnson: Well, it really was a journey. I would call myself “the accidental doctor.” When I went to college, I was a math major at Northwestern University. I made friends with some people that had the same classes as me, so we all took math and science classes together. One day, I saw that all my friends were getting ready for this test (the MCAT) to see if you wanted to be a doctor, so I decided to also take the MCAT at the end of my third year. All my friends were thinking of going to medical school, but it wasn’t on my mind.
My father was a PhD, and my mother was a psychiatric nurse, but no one was saying, “You need to be a doctor.” But I ended up taking the test, I scored well, and I applied to medical school and got into two of the four medical schools I applied to!
Once I got to medical school at Howard University, I met some people who were dermatology residents in my apartment building. I met a doctor who’s very well-known now, Dr. Pearl Grimes. One day, when I was rotating at the VA, uninterested in my psychiatry rotation at the time, I saw Pearl and asked her, “Can I follow you around instead?” and she said, “Yeah, come on!” So, I hung out with her in the dermatology clinic. She was the kind of resident who had her big Fitzpatrick textbook of dermatology open and, after every patient, she would go look in the book and read about their disease. She liked to pretend that she was my teacher, showing me different things in the book. I was really fascinated because she was so enthusiastic.
I’ve always also considered myself a photographer; When I was in high school, I had a dark room in my parents’ basement, back in the day when you would develop the film and hang it up in the dark. All the dermatologists, including Pearl, had these nice cameras and were always taking pictures, and I liked taking pictures.
So, my path was kind of accidental, but I have not looked back for one second and said, “I wish I had done something different.” Dermatology has so many different things you can do.
How have you seen the field of dermatology change since becoming an attending?
Dr. Johnson: It’s changed a lot, mostly completely for good. I used to know all the Black doctors in dermatology, but now I don’t know most of them, and it makes me very happy, because that just means that we’ve multiplied. I can’t stop smiling when I go to a meeting and see all the new faces. In the past, we all trained at Howard or King Drew in LA, and Meharry. I used to be the one that everyone knew since there weren’t many of us.
Also, now we have some excellent treatments, it’s like a new world and you must keep up. We don’t have cures, but we definitely have better therapies. I remember back when everyone with psoriasis was treated with methotrexate; therefore, everyone with psoriasis got liver insult, so we had to keep track of the grams of methotrexate we were giving patients and, once it got to a certain dose, the patient had to get a liver biopsy. These biopsies injured some people, but that’s all we had as an option.
We also had to use a lot of light boxes. I was in the PUVA clinic where all the vitiligo patients received PUVA, but now we have topical therapies and JAK inhibitors.
It’s just a wonderful time to be treating patients now. It’s safer and it’s more reliable.
How did you develop your clinical interests in skin of color dermatology and lasering treatments?
Dr. Johnson: Back in the day, Black doctors mainly saw Black patients, and that was our bread and butter. We had to teach white doctors about skin of color. Skin of color is in my brain because I am a Black doctor who has trained with Black doctors. Skin of color in the textbooks came much later. As we saw patients, we knew right away what the diagnosis was, but the white doctors didn’t know because they didn’t see enough Black patients, or they didn’t see any Black patients. It wasn’t surprising when a patient came to me who had cutaneous T-cell lymphoma for 8 years but was being treated for eczema (that wasn’t getting better and wasn’t itching), and no one had performed a biopsy on them.
How do you see the field of dermatology evolving in its approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion?
Dr. Johnson: Well, the words have appeared. I remember when there was nothing about diversity, equity, and inclusion in dermatology. In fact, at the last academic meeting I attended, there was a long discussion consisting of people who wanted to put a stop to it.
What has your experience been like as a woman of color in dermatology?
Dr. Johnson: I’m not surprised when I encounter bias. I don’t give it much thought because that’s just the way it is. You can never forget that race is a factor in your daily life, whether it’s a Black patient experiencing one thing or a white patient experiencing one thing. I spent most of my career where I was not the minority, I never felt like I was “the Black girl.” Growing up, most of the specialists around me were Black doctors, Indian doctors, nonblack doctors, and they were various levels of competency.
What advice would you give to aspiring dermatologists?
Dr. Johnson: Follow your heart. Do what makes you happy.
The more you like what you do, the better you will find that your life turns out.
Some of the happiest doctors I know are dermatologists. It’s hard to say that there’s one path for anyone to do anything. You’ll know whether you’re doing something that makes you feel happy, but if you’re stressed out and you don’t feel like it is working for you, don’t be afraid to change courses. Do what makes you feel best at the end of the day. When you’re around people who enjoy what they’re doing, it’s contagious.
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