The road to becoming a doctor was not a simple one for Sherman “Sugar” Singleton.
Born and raised in Farmington, Singleton always wanted to study medicine and return home to practice. She succeeded in that when she became a physician 20 years ago.
Singleton, who works for San Juan Regional Medical Center’s Urgent Care, last year opened SkinSationMD, a Farmington clinic focused on traditional and integrative medicine.
Singleton graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of New Mexico. She entered medical school, but did not complete her residency until 2006.
An ill parent and family obligations caused her to put her dream of being a doctor on hold, but Singleton never gave up.
She wanted to serve her community as a physician and opened SkinSationMD to focus on comprehensive health and prevention.
“I wanted a space where I could practice prevention,” Singleton said. She focuses on longevity, adding, “my goal with every patient is to have them look younger 10 years from now than they do today.”
Dr. Joseph Pope, a Farmington family physician who has known Singleton since she was a college student, praised her medical philosophy.
“I wish we had more physicians like her. If we could promote health, we would have less disease and we would all be happier as human beings because we wouldn’t be sick as much,” Pope said. “Generally, we react to disease and we don’t do enough to prevent it. I do think her approach to preventing illness is golden.”
Recognizing Farmington’s demographics, roughly one-third Native American, one-third Hispanic and one-third white, Singleton tailored her services to the population.
“We wanted to create a space that represented our culture and our community,” Singleton said. “I made some large investments in lasers designed for our women of culture. I want to treat all of our community.”
Working alongside her staff and with Dr. Michael Rutledge, serving as the clinic’s skin care specialist, Singleton said the team’s goal is to provide care for patients of all skin types and backgrounds while creating a welcoming environment for everyone.
Singleton added that she strives to provide the best possible care for patients despite many of the limitations often found in the traditional medical system.
The team plans to expand the practice in the future. Singleton said the vision includes a larger wellness center that would provide additional space for services and community education. Plans for the expansion include hosting teaching events and wellness lectures focused on helping residents achieve better health and well-being.
“We want our patients to feel total wellness here,” Singleton said.
Singleton’s path to becoming a doctor shifted during her first month of medical school. After learning how to perform a Pap smear in class, Singleton urged her healthy, active mother to get a physical.
Helen Singleton had not had the exam in 22 years.
During the routine physical with Pope, it was discovered Helen had cancer.
She traveled to the Mayo Clinic for a surgery that lasted up to 10 hours. Helen was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of papillary serous carcinoma, which behaves like ovarian cancer. Doctors told the family she had a stage 3C, poorly differentiated cancer, and gave her two to four months to live.
Singleton took a four-year leave of absence to care for her mother, raise her infant son and help run the family business, Singleton’s Mobile Home Sales
Singleton didn’t think she would become a doctor. But late one night in 1999, she said an inner voice prompted her to return to school.
“When the dream is big enough the facts don’t matter,” Singleton said.
She reenrolled at UNM. With her husband and son in Farmington, Singleton commuted back and forth to med school.
“I basically did it one week at a time,” she said. “I can do this for one more week.”
After seven years of back and forth to UNM, Singleton graduated. Pope traveled to Albuquerque to place the academic hood on her during the graduation ceremony.
“Only one person can be chosen for that honor. And she chose me and I was truly, truly honored to be the person that she wanted to do that,” Pope said.
After all of her hard work and dedication, Singleton was named UNM’s Distinguished Alumna in 2023.
Singleton’s interest in integrative medicine grew from Helen’s 10-year fight against cancer, she said, adding her mother’s treatment journey led to the pursuit of education in integrative wellness.
“There’s a lot of other paths to healing and some of that is what the patient believes,” she said, adding that she explored different approaches to healing and the value of learning from a variety of health practitioners and traditions.
Singleton called medicine “a phenomenal gift” and “a phenomenal blessing,” adding that she remains grateful to the University of New Mexico and the mentors who helped her become the kind of physician she wanted to be.
“She knows what she wants,” Pope said. “She’s persistent. She’s very courageous.”
Singleton now co-coordinates the local branch of the UNM B.A.M.D. program with Farmington City Manager Shaña Reeves. This helps students who plan to practice in rural New Mexico.
Her students shadow her in the clinic and spend 20 hours a week doing community engagement at the Sycamore Community Center, working with youth.
“I’ve taken students from the med school since I graduated,” Singleton said.
Singleton also takes her students to locally owned restaurants each week to introduce them to Farmington.
Emily Wang, a second-year medical student, said Singleton takes every moment as a learning experience. “She’s OK with slowing down and really explaining every bit about it,” Wang said.
Guadalupe Gutierrez, a pre-med student, said Singleton’s mentorship makes a difference. “It makes me feel like she really cares about where we’re at and how we’re doing,” Gutierrez said.
Looking back Singleton said the hardships were worth it.
“Since I finished school, I always knew I wanted to come back home and practice medicine here,” Singleton said. “I’m super grateful every day for the opportunity to be in service of my community.”