2014 NCEA Gerson Award Winners Announced

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Estheticians, Manufacturers/Distributors & Associations (NCEA) is pleased to announce that two teachers were honored this year for the Gerson Award for Excellence in Esthetic Education.

Deanna Beaver

Co-recipient Deanna Beaver is the Advanced Esthetics Instructor at New York Institute of Beauty in Islandia, New York. For 10 years, Beaver has been dedicated to raising the standards of the esthetics profession.

Throughout her career, she has written for Dermascope and presented at The International Congress of Esthetics and Spa Conference, and Career Educators Alliance (CEA) convention. She has generously volunteered her time in the past year to create New York Institute of Beauty’s Elite Skin Care Professionals, a networking group for estheticians that helps raise awareness on regulatory changes within the industry.

Beaver wrote and implemented a curriculum approved by NYS Department of Education and NACCAS to offer advanced education for licensed skin care professionals. This past year, Beaver participated in the Milady Advisory Committee providing her expertise to help them formulate the best product for future estheticians. She also was a reviewer on several chapters for the Milady Standard Esthetics: Advanced textbook.

Beaver is also pursuing her own dreams of becoming a registered nurse, where she hopes to combine her passion for esthetics with her medical background.

Heidi Phillips

Co-recipient Heidi Phillips is the Advanced Esthetic Instructor and owner of the European School of Esthetics. Her mother had always told her since she was a child how important it is to take care of her skin from the inside out.

In 1984, Phillips had the privilege to study Kosmetikschule Petra Kutz-Breimer in Nuernberg, Germany. Her passion to help others led to furthering her own education, and she became an instructor. Phillip’s teacher was her mentor, and she was taught with love and passion.

Returning to Alabama in 1991 she, opened her own school. Phillips was actively involved in bringing esthetician licensing to the state of Alabama. From 2001 through 2007, she served as the Chairman of the Alabama Association of Licensed Estheticians Advisory Board.

Phillips still is in contact with most of her students, and enjoys watching them grow in skin care. She continues to provide mentoring to all of her students and graduates offering sage advice, business and product education, and maintains her “open door” policy. “My students graduate with confidence and knowledge. They have all been very successful, and I am extremely proud of them,” she says.

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