"Dr. Amy Alderman grew up with her mother in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and her father is a produce farmer in Florida. Medicine was not part of the family tradition. However, at a very young age, Dr. Alderman was exposed to doctors and the hospital; her grandmother lived with the family and required extensive care. At the age of 12, Dr. Alderman knew that medicine was her calling. She wanted to devote her life to helping others. At 16 years of age, her best friend’s father was a plastic surgeon and let her follow him to work one day and observe surgery. That day will forever be in her memory. Her path was set. She went to Birmingham-Southern College and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, and Academic All-American in tennis. She went on to graduate valedictorian of her medical school class at the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine and received early membership into the national medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha. She graduated with top honors in clinical rotations, including surgery, internal medicine, emergency medicine, and psychiatry.
Dr. Alderman was one of just two applicants accepted into the University of Michigan, which was only one of three accredited integrated plastic surgery residencies in the U.S. at that time. During her training, she was accepted into the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars fellowship where she received training in health services research and earned a Masters in Public Health. This additional training gave Dr. Alderman the background to incorporate surgical outcomes research and patient safety initiatives into her surgical practice. At the time of graduation, she had received the honor of being the chief administrative resident for her program, had received six research awards, and was presented the University of Michigan Crudup Award, which is given to the surgical resident that demonstrated the most outstanding research during training.
After graduation, Dr. Alderman was invited to join the teaching staff at the University of Michigan, which has one of the largest and most prestigious plastic surgery training programs in the U.S. She was promoted to tenured Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery and served as the Director of the Cosmetic Center for Plastic Surgery. During her six years on staff at the University of Michigan, Dr. Alderman’s clinical practice focused on breast reconstruction and cosmetic surgery. Her clinical research was dedicated to improving women’s access to reconstructive breast surgery, improving surgical outcomes, and patient safety. In 2014, Dr. Alderman’s research efforts were recognized by the Plastic Surgery Foundation, when she received the national award for Outstanding Achievement in Plastic Surgery Research."
