Charles Perniciaro

Early life

Perniciaro was born to the late Ernest G. Perniciaro, a firefighter, and also now deceased Phereby Perniciaro, a homemaker. Perniciaro’s father was the son of immigrants from Sicily. Phereby Perniciaro was descended from the Eagan family in New Orleans’ Irish Channel neighborhood. Neither parent completed high school, although they were ardent advocates for the higher education of their three children: Perniciaro and his sisters, Susan Smith (deceased) and Jane Boisseau.

As a child, Perniciaro demonstrated the curiosity, discipline and dedication that would characterize his devotion to medical science. During his years in elementary school, he became interested in the constant threat of hurricanes in southern Louisiana. Perniciaro obtained detailed weather maps, and as soon as the local news announced the emergence of a tropical storm or hurricane, the young Perniciaro would begin plotting the coordinates and progress of the storm, following each development on radio and television reports.

Not content to note scientific developments passively, Perniciaro also took an active interest in the nation’s space program. He built and launched his own model rockets throughout suburban St. Bernard Parish. And, as with hurricanes, the young scientist followed and tracked the launch of all manned NASA rockets in America’s early space program.

Primary and secondary education

Perniciaro's formal education began at two elementary parochial schools in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where he met friends with whom he remains close to this day. He later attended public schools in suburban St. Bernard Parish, including Arabi Elementary School and Chalmette High School, graduating high school ranked third in his class, in June, 1974.

As a high school student, Perniciaro was a musician, playing clarinet, saxophone, flute, and piccolo in the marching band and jazz band. He was also editor of the Chalmette High School yearbook, Maroon Memories. It was during his high school years that Perniciaro formulated his ambition to become a doctor.

College

Perniciaro attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), in Lafayette, Louisiana, graduating in 1979 with one of the first ever Honors Bachelor of Science degrees. He was President of the College of Sciences in the Student Government Association, Music Director and announcer for the campus’ NPR affiliated radio station (KRVS-FM), and was selected into Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.

Medical school

Perniciaro received his M.D. degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, in 1983. He was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and President of the Aesculapian Society.

Mayo Clinic

Perniciaro has a long association with Mayo Clinic. He completed both a dermatology residency and later a dermatopathology fellowship at Mayo Graduate School in Rochester, Minnesota. It was here that he met some of the most influential mentors of his medical career, including two of America’s most brilliant dermatologists, Richard K. Winkelmann, M.D., and Harold O. Perry, M.D. After three years on the staff at Ochsner Health System, Dr. Perniciaro joined the consultant staff at Mayo Clinic Florida (Jacksonville, Florida) in 1990, also attaining the rank of associate professor at Mayo Medical School, before departing Mayo in 1999 to open his own private dermatology practice. Perniciaro remains a friend and benefactor of Mayo Clinic, and has been invited back many times as an alumnus to lecture on topics in dermatology and dermatopathology.

Business and management interests

In the 1990s, while working full-time as a dermatologist, Perniciaro founded a successful corporation, Jingle Lights, which rented and installed Christmas lights on residences, shopping centers, and skyscrapers in the metropolitan region of Jacksonville, Florida. Perniciaro later established his own private dermatology practices in Neptune Beach, Florida and Brunswick, Georgia. By 2007, however, Perniciaro was devoting himself full-time to the practice of dermatopathology, and currently serves as the Director of Dermatopathology for Bernhardt Laboratories, a division of Aurora Diagnostics, in Jacksonville. Dr. Perniciaro has also served intermittently since 2000 as a staff dermatopathologist with the University of Florida (UF Health Jacksonville). In addition, Perniciaro manages several limited liability corporations for commercial and residential real estate interests. He has served in several leadership positions at Mayo Clinic, Aurora Diagnostics, and many societies in organized medicine.

Personal life

Perniciaro is married to the former Gail Morrison Kahler. Perniciaro has two daughters from a prior marriage, both of whom attended high school at Jacksonville’s Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

An avid football fan, Dr. Perniciaro and his father attended nearly every New Orleans Saints home game until his father’s death (which occurred just after a Saints game the two attended in 1989). Perniciaro was thrilled to support his favorite team in Miami in 2010, attending the Saints’ first ever Super Bowl appearance, a game which the Saints won against the Indianapolis Colts.

In 2010, Perniciaro became concerned about a number of public policy issues, particularly developments in public school education, and ran a vigorous campaign in his five county district for the Republican nomination to the Florida State Senate. An ardent fiscal conservative, Perniciaro's campaign called attention to the basis of true fiscal conservatism, as well as to damaging trends in public education. Although Perniciaro's bid for the nomination did not result in his election, it pressed the issues he espoused into the political dialogue.