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Are you passionate about advancing diversity in dermatology and eager to make a meaningful impact? We invite you to be a part of our journey to grow our community of professionals dedicated to skin of color dermatology.

Be a Champion for Diversity

Take the lead in our SOCS Member Recruitment Rally and invite your dermatology colleagues to join our dynamic community. This is your opportunity to make a significant impact and win exciting prizes along the way!

• Grand Prize: The member with the highest number of successful referrals will receive a full year of free SOCS membership dues.
• Second & Third Place: Win exclusive SOCS-branded merchandise that proudly showcases your dedication to our mission.

By recruiting new members, you're not just expanding our society; you're helping to elevate the global reach and influence of dermatology focused on skin of color.

How to Participate

1. Refer Your Colleagues: Share the graphic below via text or email with your dermatology peers. It includes a QR code that links directly to our membership application page and ask them to apply for membership using your name as a referral.
2. SOCS will Track Your Referrals: Make sure your referrals enter your name in the designated field on the membership form, so we can credit you for the referral and add them to your referral tally.
3. Submit Potential Members: Alternatively, use the fillable form at the bottom of this page to submit information for potential members. Our SOCS membership team will follow up directly with the person you mention below to invite them to join the society as a member.

Join Us in Making a Difference

We are eager to welcome new members into the SOCS community. Together, we can foster greater inclusion and drive growth in the field of dermatology.

Good luck to all participants! Let’s transform the future of dermatology, one referral at a time.

Share the graphic below with your colleagues today and start making a difference with SOCS!

Rally with SOCS and Refer Your Dermatology Colleagues Today!

Many of you have given countless hours to SOCS by supporting mentorship, research, advocacy, leadership and ultimately helping to improve outcomes in dermatology patients with skin of color. Thank you for ALL you have done and do to invest in the future of dermatology and culturally competent quality care in the U.S. and abroad.

 
How will you leave a legacy?

It is estimated that $70 trillion will pass down from older generations to younger generations (and organizations doing incredible work that you share a common vision) over the next two decades. Would you consider joining a prestigious group of your peers—the Theodore K. Lawless, MD Legacy Circle and/or Founders Club today—by identifying SOCS as a recipient of a gift in your estate or retirement planning? Will you let our team know that you have made those plans so we can thank you properly?

If you indicate any gift in your estate or retirement planning, you qualify for the Theodore K. Lawless, MD Legacy Circle and we would like to recognize you and thank you. If that gift is valued at an estimated $25,000 or more today, a Theodore K. Lawless, MD Legacy Circle member also qualifies for the Founders Club—honoring our amazing SOCS Founders. Any donor may join anonymously or by name.

When you let us know that you have made these plans and want to join anonymously, you encourage your peers and other SOCS Foundation donors to also leave a legacy in this manner. We assure you that we will keep your information anonymous. Thank you!

Here is a form to let us know you have left a gift or request more information:

ACCESS FORM

How To Give

Because more and more of your peers are asking questions about how to leave a gift to the SOCS Foundation through estate or retirement planning, we’ve developed some information here that might help. Methods and investment vehicles your peers are leaving a legacy for the SOCS Foundation:

1. Common Trusts
2. IRA distributions
3. Stock options
4. Property
5. Bequests
6. Charitable gift annuities
7. Charitable remainder annuity trusts
8. Insurance
9. Cash gifts
10. Wills

We have many more resources available upon request and are more than happy to help. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our team at 630-578-3991 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Why name the legacy circle after Theodore K. Lawless, MD?

1. He was our nation’s first Black Dermatologist.
2. He went to several medical schools—ultimately graduating from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
3. He participated in graduate studies at Columbia Medical School and Harvard Medical School.
4. He studied abroad in France, Austria and Germany after Med School and returned to open a Dermatology practice on Chicago’s South side.
5. It has been reported his practice was so popular and successful that lines of patients—of all colors—extended out the door and down the block.
6. He was well known for treating veterans just back from deployment—who often had little money to pay him—for no charge.
7. He was a well-respected researcher, philanthropist, businessman, and investor.
8. He helped to start and invested in numerous businesses including banks, life insurance companies and others (that primarily served minority communities) and were very successful—filling vital needs in the Chicago community.
9. Early in his educational career, he was supported by several Jewish families, and he repaid their loyalties by supporting Jewish and Israeli-based charities and causes over his lifetime through his estate and retirement planning.
10. His vision for creating and leaving a legacy of his own—through philanthropy and estate and retirement planning—resulted in the equivalent of millions of dollars invested into scholarships and research for Dermatology, medicine in general, museums, children, etc.

 Why name the Founders Club after our Founders?

1. This pioneering group of visionaries deserve to be honored.
2. They helped to start a medical society that is the Global Leader in Skin of Color Dermatology.
3. When you add to your legacy, by adding the SOCS Foundation to your estate or retirement plans, you lean into this shared common vision for the future.