About Kat

Kathryn Khadija Leverette

Kathryn Khadija Leverette is an acne specialist, ethnic skin expert and state-licensed esthetician specializing in results-oriented clinical skin care since 1987. Her areas of expertise include acne, razor bumps, hyperpigmentation issues (including dark spots and uneven skin tone), sports and obesity-related skin problems and scar treatment.

She has stayed on the cutting edge in the area of ethnic skin care since the late 80s. Leverette’s clientele is 85% African-American, 40% of which are men, with a 15% mix of African, Hispanic, Caucasian, Asian, West Indian, Asian Indian, Pacific Islander and Native American clients.

Leverette is best known in the industry for developing the first internationally-recognized program to successfully treat razor bumps and acne keloiditis/keloidalis (scalp bumps and scars). She was one of the first skin care professionals to utilize and write about the alpha hydroxy acids (glycolic and lactic acid) in the late 1980s, and the very first to introduce the use of alpha hydroxy acids in Europe.

Most referrals to her practice are for acne, various forms of hyperpigmentation, shaving problems, itchy skin, keloid scars, sensitive skin conditions, scalp issues and razor bumps.

Clientele: Actors Danny Glover, Laurence Fishburne and Ben Stiller, director/actor Bill Duke, Angela Bofill, Latin bandleader Pete Escovedo, bluesman Joe Louis Walker, and dozens of professional athletes from the NFL and NBA, including Tim Brown, Ray Lewis, Anthony Dorsett, Zack Crockett, the late Eric Turner and Darrell Russell, Don Griffin, Sam Adams, Mitch Richmond, Rod Higgins, Adonal Foyle, Marc Jackson, Eric Dampier and Rickey Henderson.

She is an advocate for burn survivors and donates her time to perform free scar reduction peel procedures in the community. She is has developed effective non-invasive scar reduction techniques for third degree burns, keloid scarring and acne keloidalis, a disfiguring scalp disorder afflicting black men.

Leverette is also a skin care industry speaker, consultant and educator. Her articles have appeared in the International Society of Clinical Plastic Surgeons newsletter, Dermascope, Black Elegance, Les Nouvelles Esthetiques, Salon Sense and Skin Inc. She an editor and a contributing author to the medical textbook Ethnic Considerations in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and a contributing editor to ShopTalk, the popular, now defunct black beauty industry magazine.

Her interviews have appeared regularly in Essence, Elle, Black Elegance, Allure, Upscale, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Self, Shape, Glamour, Vogue, BBW, Men’s Health, Modern Salon, Black Tress, DaySpa, Good Housekeeping, Parenting, Oakland Magazine and many more. Her center was chosen as one of the few individual skin care practices listed as a referral source for black skin care in the best-selling book Body and Soul, a health and beauty resource for black women published by Essence magazine.

Born into a Southern Texas family, her family relocated to Hancock Park in Los Angeles, where she attended school and studied dance. After years of training, she became a multi-disciplined professional dancer and instructor, including Afro-Haitian, West African, Congolese, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-jazz, tap, ballet, flamenco and a variety of North African and Middle Eastern folk and cabaret dance styles, including belly dance. Leverette taught classes and performed ethnic dance with Malonga Casquelourd and others at Alice Arts Center in downtown Oakland.

She attended college in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and then relocated to New York City, where she opened Urban Art, a contracting firm specializing in expert interior woodwork and antique restoration, custom flooring and the renovation of Harlem brownstones. She continued to study dance, including Senegalese, Congolese, Brazilian and Afro-Haitian at the world-renowned Clark Center, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Leverette resides Oakland, California and enjoys reggae, African and world music, R&B, jazz and classic rock, watching professional football, world travel (especially Africa and the Caribbean), home improvement and designing African-themed jewelry. She collects African masks and wood carvings, Tuareg (Sahara nomad) jewelry and Shona stone sculpture from Zimbabwe.

Leverette traveled extensively throughout Europe, North Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East in the past, and to West Africa, Central America, Brazil and the Caribbean more recently, with plans for another trip to Africa in 2012.

Her son, Jas Leverette, a professional dog trainer and canine consultant, owns California Canine Solutions (CaliK9.com), based in San Jose and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. He provides basic obedience classes, advanced protection training and the rehabilitation of aggressive dogs.