We couldn’t be more pleased and honored to share a fantastic recent article in the Philadelphia Tribune celebrating Dr. Emily Pollard, who the Tribune cited as, “one of the region’s leading plastic surgeons”. The article, entitled, “Local surgeon celebrates 25 years in practice”, describes how, “In September, Dr. Emily Pollard celebrated her 25th year in practice. She specializes in cosmetic surgery which includes body contouring, facial rejuvenation, and breast surgery.”
Going on to note that, “Dr. Emily Pollard is a board certified plastic surgeon”, the article describes in magnificent detail how Dr. Pollard, “was drawn to plastic surgery while doing her rotations in medical school. She says she liked the problem-solving that was involved and seeing the end product.”
It really is this commitment to problem-solving on behalf of her patients that characterizes Dr. Pollard’s career of service to her community. But leave it to Dr. Pollard to be extremely thankful and appreciative to everyone who has supported her in fulfilling that mission: “’I am certainly grateful to all of my patients, the staff that I have and my family for supporting me during this time,” Pollard said as she reflected on her years practicing medicine.”
Patient-centric care runs deep in the Pollard family, as Dr. Pollard’s father was a urologist, who encouraged Dr. Pollard to pursue her ambition of helping patients realize their aesthetic and cosmetic dreams, even though she and her father both knew she would need to be a genuine trailblazer, as even “early on, Pollard knew she would be a rarity in her field. She was one of two African-American women out of a group of 35 surgical residents when she completed her residency at Georgetown University during the 1980s.”
This took tremendous courage and resilience on Dr. Pollard’s part, and she recently reflected on those early struggles, recalling how as an African-Americans, she frequently was “mistaken for someone other than a surgeon and asked to retrieve a wheelchair or draw blood for lab work while in various medical settings.”
The courage and persevering attitude that Dr. Pollard exemplifies is a tribute to her upbringing and tenacity: “When I went into practice, there were very few African-American plastic surgeons and there were even fewer African-American female plastic surgeons, so it was kind of a lonely trip,” Pollard recalled. Nevertheless, Dr. Pollard persevered, and that persevering attitude paid off, in large part because she was able to stay grounded, for which she “credits her parents and being a member of the National Medical Association, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of African-American physicians.”
Dr. Pollard at first practiced in the Indianapolis area before making the decision in 1996 to move to Pennsylvania and establish her cosmetic surgery practice near Philadelphia, and as the Philadelphia Tribune notes, “Dr. Pollard currently runs her private practice in Bala Cynwyd and has served as the chief of plastic surgery at Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood since 2006.”
The Philadelphia Tribune article captures the essence of Dr. Pollard’s philosophy, which is the essential component to the caring and compassionate way that she treats all of her patients.
In the Tribune article, Dr. Pollard describes her approach to helping patients achieve their dreams: “If somebody comes in for body contouring, we want to look at them from all sides, not only physically but physiologically,” Pollard explained. “I may ask lifestyle questions because we know that you are what you eat and we know that exercise improves your muscles, your bone strength, and your posture and supports your metabolism. That all goes into a good-looking body,” she continued. If you ask to be pencil thin but you have lousy posture or no good muscle or bone support, then nothing I do is going to turn out all that great.”
But beyond just her own words, the article aptly sums up the feelings that Dr. Pollard’s fellow physicians have for her, their respect and admiration for her skill as well as her ability to achieve outstanding results for her patients. Dr. Wilfreta Baugh, an internist who referred patients to Dr. Pollard for many years, sums up the sentiments of her fellow physicians: “She’s one of best doctors, from my perspective as a physician to refer patients to,” Baugh said, because she is so, “extraordinary gifted. She’s also extraordinarily kind to people who have problems.” Many patients that Dr. Baugh referred to Dr. Pollard had “developed scars and other types of physical issues”, and often times, “the problems that they were having would be physical [issues] that caused them to have emotional difficulties, and that’s where (Dr. Pollard) is a real jewel,” Baugh said.
Dr. Baugh, who is a former president of the local chapter of the National Medical Association, the Medical Society of Eastern Pennsylvania, reports that “Dr. Pollard has been an active member of the Medical Society and noted that other African-American physicians who hold similar positions don’t often show up to their meetings.”
As the article notes, Dr. Pollard has worked long and hard to be able to be of such service to her patients, beginning with her college education at the exclusive and elite Seven Sisters college, Smith College: “Pollard was an honors student at Smith College and received a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin. She graduated from Meharry Medical College, where she was class valedictorian. She completed her general surgery residency and served as chief resident at Georgetown University Medical Center. Pollard completed her plastic surgery residency at Indiana University.”
We are beyond delighted to have this kind of recognition for Dr. Pollard’s incredible 25 years in practice, and we encourage you to take the time to read the article and then to schedule your consultation with Dr. Pollard. No matter whether you need body contouring or facial rejuvenation procedures, which are among the most popular procedures requested by Dr. Pollard’s patients, to help you so that “unsightly bulges are removed from (your) thighs, hips, abdomen or other areas”, Dr. Pollard can help you get the kind of results you deserve.
Take the time today to schedule your consultation with Dr. Pollard, and receive the benefits of Dr. Pollard’s professional skill and expertise, but also her positive outlook on life: “Have faith in yourself and gravitate toward positive thinking [and] supportive people.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
