Renata Prado, MD

Dr. Renata Prado grew up in the mountains of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in a large Italian-descendant family whose curiosity and drive inspired her from an early age. She spent part of her early years in Germany as well as a senior year of high school in Virginia, experiences that broadened her worldview and deepened her compassion. In 1994, she began medical school at UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), where she was awarded a three-year federal grant to study maternal-fetal HIV transmission and elected by her classmates to read the Hippocratic Oath at graduation. After obtaining her medical degree, she completed an internal medicine residency and worked in the ICU in Brazil before deciding to specialize in skin disease and surgery.

In 2002, Dr. Prado moved to the U.S. to pursue post-doctoral research at Northwestern University. Her research brought her to Colorado, where she joined the Department of Dermatology of the University of Colorado – Denver as a research fellow. That is when she fell in love with Colorado. She then continued her education by doing her internal medicine internship, her dermatology residency, and her Mohs fellowship, all at the University of Colorado – Denver. Her research in skin immunology and cancer paved the way for her fellowship-training as a Mohs surgeon and her deep commitment to complex skin-cancer care. After her fellowship, she worked as a Mohs surgeon near Boston, Massachusetts, for 4 years.

In 2016, she and her family relocated to Colorado Springs and joined Vanguard Skin Specialists, drawn by its culture of excellence, community impact, and global outreach. A devoted mother of two boys, Dr. Prado enjoys sharing adventures with her kids by biking neighborhood trails, annual surfing trips back to Brazil, and skiing the beautiful Colorado mountains. Whether guiding a complex reconstruction after a skin-cancer excision or mentoring young dermatologists, she believes in medicine that honors both expert skill and human connection.