Flippin for Healthy Feet with Assistance from SBA’s Emerging Leaders Program

In November 2012, physician and surgeon of the foot Regina Flippin started her practice Urban Foot Care in Christiansted, St. Croix with two employees and plenty of determination.  She already had nine years of experience, having run a successful practice in Milwaukee since 2003.

“My husband had retired after 32 years of federal service and we were looking for someplace warm to put down roots,” says the Memphis native.

Flippin specializes in surgically correcting foot deformities. For several years, she ran a successful practice, giving her all to save feet that would have otherwise been amputated, due to diabetes and other diseases. But in September 2017 Hurricane Maria destroyed what she had worked so hard at creating.

An e-mail about a US Small Business Administration (SBA) program would change the course of Flippin’s practice. The surgeon learned of the SBA’s Emerging Leaders training series for established small businesses. She applied to the program and a few months after the hurricane was on her way to rebuilding her medical practice.

“Emerging Leaders helped me learn all about the numbers,” she says. “Sometimes you don’t put on paper what you have in your head. “In my case, I knew what to put on paper, but this program helped me implement it.”

Flippin had purchased a building in Orange Grove in 2015, and slowly began renovating it. By the time she graduated from SBA’s Emerging Leaders seven months later, Urban Foot Care was already operating in its new location.

Flippin sees an average of 30 patients a day. And, while she has also been tending to patients in St. Thomas for some time now, she hopes to co-locate with another medical practice on that island. She is also working to expand to the British Virgin Islands, in addition to adding more employees to her St. Croix practice, which has already grown to seven from its original two.

“One of my short-term goals is to hire two more doctors here in St. Croix,” the surgeon says.

Also, Flippin is creating a luxury hand and foot spa in her state-of-the-art building, to offer additional services to her patients and help grow a diverse customer base.

“My greatest satisfaction is limb salvage and patient education that can help save their lives.”

Due to her demand, Flippin maintains her practice in Milwaukee. In addition, Flippin, who in 2010 became a breast cancer survivor, gives back to the community, serving as an advocate for awareness and by organizing charity events such as ‘Flippin to a Cure’, to help women with co-pays and education.