From Beverly Hills Acne Clinics to a Rural Roots Mission
At the Elevate-Derm summer conference in Park City, Utah, PA Buchi Neita and PA Shanna Miranti sat down with Amy Snow, PA-C, a dermatology PA with more than 20 years of experience and the founder of Project Happy Face, a 501c(3) nonprofit she launched in 2009. As Snow put it, the group is dedicated to patients in need—originally disadvantaged teenagers with acne—and has since pivoted its mission toward creating dermatology access in rural communities.
Snow traced the idea back to her upbringing in a small, rural town in Idaho, where she grew up on a dirt road and remembers the excitement of the mammogram bus rolling into town. That sense of a community working together stuck with her, even after she landed in Los Angeles and practiced in Beverly Hills. Project Happy Face became her way to bridge her love of dermatology with her rural roots—and, as she said, to 'spread kindness in a way that I feel small towns create.'
Why It Started With Acne
Snow explained that as the newbie in a Beverly Hills practice, she got all the acne patients—the cases nobody else wanted. But she quickly saw the power in it: teenagers who walked in hiding under hoodies and slouched in the chair would come back transformed, often just from starting a basic regimen. She realized treating acne is relatively straightforward, and she used that as leverage to get kids into the clinic.
The relationships became the real work. Snow began mentoring patients through the college application process—asking about the SAT versus the ACT, what schools they wanted, and what they cared about. She partnered with high school counselors who identified kids with acne who were 'diamonds in the rough' and falling behind at home. She took photos before, walked alongside them through their applications, and celebrated with a college t-shirt and a clear-faced 'after' photo once they were accepted. Neita and Miranti noted that this is far more than clearing skin—it's changing the trajectory of a young person's life.
The Contract: A Lift Up, Not a Handout
Snow was clear that Project Happy Face is 'definitely not a handout. This is a lift-up.' Participants sign a contract with real commitments: smiling at strangers, pledging to increase stability in their community, writing four essay questions, and bringing a letter of recommendation from a teacher. In the early years, a 3.0 GPA was required, but Snow said the program had to stay 'pivotal' to reflect changes in Oregon's academic system and has since dropped the grade requirement.
Her philosophy centered on the idea that these kids are future leaders. She reminded listeners that with every pediatric patient, the way clinicians treat them shapes their path forward. As she said, most people can name two or three adults who inspired them as kids; dermatology APPs have a chance to be that person.
Taking the Show on the Road: Screenings, Path, and Education
Once Project Happy Face acquired a mobile trailer, the mission expanded dramatically. Snow explained that Oregon has 36 counties, 24 of them rural and frontier, and the state is huge. The trailer lets her drive two to four hours to towns with populations as small as 300, where a single K–12 school might have just 32 kids—so they treat the whole school.
The Screen to Save program provides skin cancer screenings, and Snow partnered with dermatopathologist Dr. Curtis Thompson of CTA Pathology in Portland, who donates free biopsies and pathology services for uninsured patients. That means the team isn't just screening—they're driving four or five hours out and finding melanomas and skin cancers, and saving lives.
The third arm is education for the rural nurse practitioners and HCPs holding up these clinics alone. Snow asks each one whether they have a dermatology textbook or atlas—many don't—and has been gifting them across the frontier. With a grant from Arcutis, Project Happy Face now provides HCP education on seborrheic dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis, and is working on how to get biologics to these settings.
How APPs Can Get Involved
Snow encouraged clinicians not to feel they need to call a lawyer and form a 501(c)(3) on Monday morning. Start small: call the local firehouse to offer skin cancer screenings for firefighters, who are at higher risk; screen police departments or seasonal parks-and-rec workers who are often uninsured or underinsured; or simply see a couple of extra acne kids a week with your MA.
For APPs in other states, Snow described the Derm Buddy program, which pairs volunteer dermatology PAs with rural healthcare providers to discuss cases and build a collaborative friendship from afar. She also noted that Oregon lets out-of-state licensed clinicians volunteer for 30 days by filling out a single sheet of paper. Snow tied the mission to Oregon's evolving PA scope—PAs now work under collaborative physician agreements that stay in the office, and legislation allowing PAs to open their own practices led her to launch Snow Dermatology in March. Listeners can learn more at projecthappyface.org.