Dr. Elizabeth Hughes is a dermatologist, inventor, writer, and coach with an outside-the-box approach to medicine and physicianhood.

After graduating from medical school at the University of Virginia, she completed an internship at the University of Pennsylvania and a dermatology residency at Stanford, where she was also chief resident.

As impressive as all this sounds, for most of her life, including throughout medical training, Dr. Hughes hid a secret: she was married to a man with antisocial personality disorder, a relationship which nearly drove her to suicide.

Rather than feeling victimized, Dr. Hughes now views this relationship — and more importantly, leaving the relationship — as the most formative experience in her life.

By fully moving past that chapter of her life, she reclaimed energy and creativity which she thought was lost.

She embarked on an entrepreneurial path: founding a skincare company, joining a dermatology start up, and authoring widely read KevinMD articles.