The Town of Mount Pleasant Culture, Arts & Pride Commission awarded its annual Civic Pride Award to Sheperd Integrative Dermatology at a recent Town Council meeting. The award is given to organizations and businesses in Mount Pleasant that “go above and beyond in their beautification efforts.”

“Wow! What an honor,” said Dr. McLean Sheperd. “We really love this community and love sharing our part of it with the people who live here and those who visit. It is overwhelmingly joyful to be honored.”

Sheperd and her family committed to making her business look and feel like an oasis for her patients.

“While my name is on the door, my husband is the real force behind the continuous evolving beautification,” said Sheperd.

Sheperd met her husband, Emmett Lynch, at Esalen Institute in California. She said they were both drawn there because of the spirit of nature and beauty it embodied and the way it was constantly improving and becoming more magical because of the people who loved the land. This served as inspiration for the beautiful gardens at her office.

“We also know that personal health and planetary health and community health are all fruits of the same tree,” she said.

Sheperd graduated as an Echols Scholar with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia. She chose the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston to pursue her degree in medicine where she graduated as valedictorian. She went on to complete an MUSC residency in dermatology and a fellowship in dermatopathology, a subspecialty that focuses on the study of skin disease on a microscopic level.

More information about CAP programs can be found at experiencemountpleasant.com/play/culture-arts-pride-commission/ .