Pictured: Dr. Marguerite Barnett is a double board-certified surgeon, but also leads a rich life outside of her work as a doctor. Photo provided by The Sarasota Institute of Plastic Surgery.

Marguerite Barnett, a double board-certified plastic surgeon with more than 30 years of experience, has spent the past 20 years in Sarasota building a private practice that focuses on a holistic approach to looking and feeling good. However, she’s not just a doctor—she’s also a professional fire dancer and performs throughout the area regularly. “I don't have enough hours in the day, but everything I do, I feel I have some kind of purpose,” she says. “I don't think I could ever really just retire and do nothing.”

Barnett began her career as an Army doctor, achieving a dream she had had since she was a child. She first worked as a general surgeon before training to do plastic surgery, which allowed her to treat everything from congenital birth defects to reconstruction from trauma to elective cosmetic surgery. After leaving the military, Barnett joined a practice in Naples.

However, she soon realized that cosmetic surgery needed to be accompanied by healthy habits to be truly successful. “I realized if I was doing a great facelift, if people were still smoking or overeating or doing too much sunning, they weren't going to get good results,” she says. “So I began to envision a full service spot where we could provide everything from nutritional counseling, acupuncture and hypnosis, yoga, massage, other stress reduction techniques, as well as facial care and education about how to keep your skin good.” In 2003, she decided it was time to open her own practice and moved to Sarasota to do so.

The Sarasota Institute of Plastic Surgery and accompanying Mandala Med Spa that Barnett has created help her patients both look and feel their best. “To me, it's the best of both worlds. I have a cosmetic practice in the sense that I'm making women look better, but I'm also being a doctor and helping them feel better,” she says.

In her spare time, Barnett practices the healthy lifestyle that she advocates for in her practice. At 71 years old, she’s also a fire dancer and an amateur aerialist. Barnett says that she has always been fascinated by dance, and while studying at Harvard, she took up belly dancing to pay for her room and board. Since then, she has maintained a lifelong passion for artistic forms of exercise, even taking up pole dancing for several years. Now, she takes adult classes in aerial silks at the Sailor Circus Academy.

The Sarasota Institute of Plastic Surgery, 1715 Stickney Point Rd, Sarasota, 941-927-2447, drmbarnett.com

Pictured: Dr. Marguerite Barnett is a double board-certified surgeon, but also leads a rich life outside of her work as a doctor. Photo provided by The Sarasota Institute of Plastic Surgery.