Margaret Mitchell and Freddy Clarke on stage as narrators for the Ye Feng dance studios production, Montgomnery Theater, May 26, 2018.
Margaret grew up in Tuscon, Arizona. At six months old, she was diagnosed where she had the opportunity to teach ballroom dancing to a gentleman who with hemolytic anemia and spent the next 18 months of her life in the hospital liv-
owned a laboratory and needed an assistant. “He took a chance on me. I didn’t
ing in a literal bubble. For the rest of her childhood, Margaret returned to the hospi-
have any experience, but I was motivated to succeed.”
tal on a regular basis to monitor her white and red blood counts. This exposure to
The prospect of finally working in the medical industry excited her. The gen-
PHOTO CREDITS: © DREW ALTIZER PHOTOGRAPHY
being in a hospital inspired Margaret to pursue a career as a doctor—an OB/GYN tleman hired her and Margaret thrived. Success led her into starting a consultactually. “Babies, babies, babies! I wanted to deliver babies!” She was accepted into university, but Margaret’s mother experienced an unfor-
ing business helping medical facilities set up their management systems. It was through this business that she met Dr. Bitter, the doctor who would be her partner
tunate medical accident, and her life went from normal to critical in a matter of at Epi Center MedSpa. He hired Margaret to set up his office management sysdays. Margaret could not keep up with the demands of school and caring for her mother, so she had to abandon her dream of becoming a doctor as she tried to keep her mother alive.
tems. An amazing visionary, Dr. Bitter was working in Silicon Valley with a focus on laser and cosmetic dermatology. He invented the famed “photofacial.” After the ex-
Margaret dealt with the trauma of her mother’s demise and death through cellent job Margaret did organizing his medical practice, he approached her about ballroom dancing. “I just let all my emotion out on the dance floor.” A series of opening a location in San Francisco that offered both medical services and spa serendipitous events through ballroom dancing brought Margaret to the Bay Area
services—a medical spa—and that was when the term “medspa” was born.
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