dr. sean strother
Board-Certified Dermatologist
A THOUSAND MILES FROM THE BAYOU…
The Louisiana bayou is brimming with critters just waiting for curious kids to capture, study, and learn from. For many children, it’s simply a fun way to make memories. For others, it’s the catalyst for a lifelong love of learning. A handful of those kids might grow up to become leading scientists, researchers, and doctors.
Dr. M. Sean Strother, owner of Strother Dermatology, is all of those things and an avid "fitness buff." Look up the word “multi-faceted” and his face might pop up. Even his name isn’t straightforward. It’s Michael, but growing up he was called “Sean,” so he goes by M. Sean Strother. “It always made the first day of school and any dealings with the government a hoot,” he says.
His career path to dermatology was a circuitous route through graduate school, where he earned a masters degree in entomology as a beetle taxonomist describing new species of leaf beetles. “I am the world authority on an obscure genus of leaf beetles, Neofidia, and still am active in research on the taxonomy and systematics of the subfamily of leaf beetles to which the genus belongs,” he says.
When he entered medical school with his wife he considered a couple of routes, from radiology to OB/GYN, but when he discovered dermatology in his residency years, that is what captured his interest. He joined the original practice - Kirkland Laser - in 2004, when it was owned by Dr. Peter Cooperrider, and eventually bought it and renamed it Strother Dermatology in 2013.
Workdays are busy and satisfying and include seeing patients of every age, with everything from rashes to skin cancer. He performs skin surgeries and is the office pathologist, reading more than 90 percent of the biopsies generated by his practice. He also expresses his passion for teaching in his interactions with patients and their caregivers, as well as by volunteering as a clinical instructor for residents in the Dermatology Division at the University of Washington, his alma mater.
He’s been married to his wife, Delilah, for 30+ years, and they have two daughters who had about every pet imaginable growing up: fish, snakes, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, finches, turtles, and even a jumping spider.
He might have moved to Seattle, but the bayou is obviously still in his heart.