Meet the Team

Meet James Depew, MD, FACS

Atlanta & Cobb County’s Best Plastic Surgeon — Voted, Not Self-Proclaimed

When Atlantans were asked to name the city’s best Plastic Surgeon in November 2025, they chose Dr. Depew. Earlier that same year, Cobb County did the same. For Dr. Depew, those honors reflect what he’s always believed: that exceptional results come from a rare combination of surgical precision, scientific rigor, and genuine care for every patient who walks through the door.

At Depew Plastics, that philosophy isn’t diluted across a roster of providers. Dr. Depew is the practice — every consultation, every procedure, every follow-up visit. When you choose Depew Plastics, you choose him.

A Foundation Built on Excellence

Dr. Depew’s path to plastic surgery began at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he didn’t just earn one degree with highest honors — he earned two, graduating magna cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in both Chemistry and Mathematics. That analytical mind, equally fluent in molecules and measurements, would become the foundation of a surgical career defined by precision.

He went on to earn his Medical Degree from the VCU School of Medicine, then dedicated more than a decade to surgical training: an internship in General Surgery at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, a five-year General Surgery residency at Memorial University Medical Center – Mercer University School of Medicine in Savannah, and a three-year Plastic Surgery residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

The result? Dr. Depew is double board certified — by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery — a distinction held by only a select group of surgeons nationwide. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS).

Experience That Shows

Before founding Depew Plastics, Dr. Depew spent nine years as a practicing Plastic Surgeon — and Managing Partner — at one of metro Atlanta’s most respected plastic surgery practices. He has performed thousands of procedures across the full spectrum of aesthetic surgery and medical spa treatments, and he is a nationally invited speaker on advanced body contouring technologies, including Renuvion and Ellacor.

His commitment to advancing the field extends to the next generation of physicians: Dr. Depew holds a faculty appointment at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine, and his research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Annals of Plastic Surgery and the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery.

Skill With a Human Touch

Surgical talent earns awards. Character earns trust. During his training, Dr. Depew was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society and received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award — honors reserved for physicians who exemplify compassion alongside clinical excellence. He was also named Surgery Resident of the Year and received both teaching and research awards from Mercer University School of Medicine.

That humanism is the heart of how he practices today. Dr. Depew believes Plastic Surgery is as much about listening as it is about operating — understanding what each patient truly wants, setting honest expectations, and delivering natural, beautiful results.

Trusted Across Atlanta

Dr. Depew is an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, The Aesthetic Society, the Southeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Georgia Society of Plastic Surgeons and ASLMS. He holds privileges at leading hospitals throughout metro Atlanta, including Northside Hospital and Wellstar facilities.

Family First

The compassion Dr. Depew brings to his patients begins at home. He and his wife, Jessa, are raising three remarkable children — Reeve (10), Roman (9), and Avie (5) — who are growing up multilingual, speaking English, French, Spanish, and Chinese.

The Depews believe the world is the best classroom. The family travels constantly, and Dr. Depew is on a mission to show his children all 50 states before Reeve graduates high school — an adventure that’s well underway. Their passports get a workout too: regular trips to French- and Spanish-speaking countries give the kids real-world immersion in their languages, and China is on the itinerary for 2027.

Closer to home, you’ll find Dr. Depew deeply involved in Scouting America, building computers and hitting the mountain bike trails with his sons, and cheering on — and coaching up — his daughter as she sharpens her gymnastics skills. For Dr. Depew, the same qualities that define his surgical practice define his family life: dedication, attention to detail, and showing up fully for the people who count on him.

Meet Jessa Ford Depew, PharmD

Practice Manager

Behind every exceptional practice is exceptional leadership — and at Depew Plastics, that’s Jessa Ford Depew. A Doctor of Pharmacy with 17 years of pharmaceutical industry leadership, a successful entrepreneur, and Dr. Depew’s wife and partner in every sense, Jessa brings a level of operational excellence to the practice that few in healthcare can match.

From the Lab Bench to the Boardroom

Jessa’s healthcare career started the way the best ones do: hands-on. While earning her Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — graduating cum laude with honors — she worked as a phlebotomist and scrub tech, learning patient care from the ground up.

She went on to earn her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of the Pacific and complete a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship in Medical Affairs with Rutgers University. From there, she built a remarkable 17-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, rising through the ranks of Medical Affairs leadership, clinical operations, and health economics at companies including Boehringer Ingelheim, InterMune, Horizon Pharma, and Santhera Pharmaceuticals.

A Career Spent Bettering Lives

Jessa dedicated her pharmaceutical career to patients who needed champions most — those facing rare, orphan, and pediatric diseases. She played a pivotal role in bringing two drugs to market in the United States and Europe, including therapies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As Senior Director and Head of US Field Medical Affairs, she led national medical teams, managed expanded access programs that connected critically ill patients with investigational treatments, and worked alongside the world’s leading physicians and researchers.

For nearly a decade, she also served as a pro bono board member of the Lung Transplant Foundation, supporting patients and families affected by lung disease and helping advance research into novel therapeutics.

An Entrepreneur Who Made History

In 2020, Jessa channeled her passion for bettering lives in a bold new direction: she founded The Quadrilingual Academy in Smyrna, Georgia — the first school in the United States to teach students four languages concurrently: English, French, Spanish, and Chinese.

What started with 13 staff members and 26 students grew to full capacity within two years. Today, The Quad serves more than 130 students with over 30 full-time employees, holds accreditation through the 5th grade from the Georgia Accrediting Commission, and stands as the most diverse program in the state. The school — and Jessa — have been featured on Fox 5 Atlanta, The Balancing Act, and Voyage ATL.

Bringing It All to Depew Plastics

As Practice Manager, Jessa applies everything her career has taught her — scientific rigor, regulatory expertise, team building, and an unwavering focus on the patient experience — to every detail of Depew Plastics. From the moment you call to schedule a consultation to your final follow-up visit, the practice runs on the same standard of excellence she’s brought to clinical trials, drug launches, and award-winning education.

A former exchange student in France, Jessa shares her love of languages, travel, and adventure with Dr. Depew and their three multilingual children. Together, the Depews have built more than a practice — they’ve built a family business grounded in science, compassion, and an absolute commitment to the people they serve.

Meet Ruby Pham, BSN-RN, CLS

Clinic Nurse & Certified Nurse Injector

Some injectors have an artistic eye. Some have deep clinical training. Ruby Pham has both — and her patients can tell. As Depew Plastics’ Clinic Nurse and Certified Nurse Injector, Ruby brings true plastic surgery experience to every treatment, caring for patients from preoperative assessment through final follow-up while delivering the natural, balanced aesthetic results she’s known for.

Ruby’s path to aesthetics was built on science. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!), where she was a HOPE Scholarship recipient, Dean’s List student, and undergraduate influenza researcher — even earning recognition as a Top 100 Student Employee of the Year. She then completed a second Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Mercer University’s Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, one of the most respected nursing programs in the state.

Since then, Ruby has dedicated her career to plastic surgery and aesthetic medicine across Atlanta’s top practices. She is certified in neurotoxins, dermal fillers, and cosmetic laser treatments, with hands-on expertise spanning CO₂ laser resurfacing, RF microneedling, PRP, wellness injections, and IV peptide therapy. Just as importantly, she’s an experienced perioperative nurse — guiding surgical patients through education, recovery, and wound care with the same steady hand she brings to injecting.

Ruby believes great aesthetic care starts with listening. Patients consistently describe her the same way: meticulous, knowledgeable, and genuinely invested in making every person feel understood and supported. Her philosophy is simple — enhance what’s already there, so you leave looking refreshed, never “done.”

Meet Martha Hunter, MSN, RN

OR Nurse & Administrator

When you’re having surgery, you want two things behind the scenes: a skilled nurse at your side and a flawlessly run operating room. At Depew Plastics, Martha Hunter delivers both. As OR Nurse and Administrator, Martha combines nearly a decade of perioperative nursing with executive-level surgical facility leadership — a rare pairing that means every detail of your surgical experience, clinical and operational, is in expert hands.

Martha’s credentials speak for themselves. She earned her Master of Science in Nursing in Nurse Administration from South University with High Honors, following a BSN from the University of Texas at Arlington, where she graduated with Latin Honors and Dean’s List recognition. Her nursing career spans the full perioperative spectrum — pre-op, OR circulation, and PACU recovery — at leading institutions including Northside Hospital, where she served as a Preceptor and Team Leader in Robotic Surgery, and Grady Memorial Hospital, where she cared for surgical and trauma patients at one of the Southeast’s busiest medical centers.

Most recently, Martha served as Surgery Center Administrator and Director of Nursing for an Atlanta orthopedic surgery center, where she led the facility through AAAHC accreditation with zero major deficiencies — the gold standard of ambulatory surgical safety. She has worn nearly every hat a surgical facility requires: Infection Control Officer, Life Safety Officer, and Quality Assurance Coordinator, with deep expertise in patient safety, sterile processing, and regulatory compliance.

Fluent in both English and Spanish, Martha ensures every patient — and every family member — feels informed, comfortable, and cared for at each step of the surgical journey. For Martha, operational excellence isn’t about checklists; it’s about earning the trust of every patient who places their safety in her hands.

Meet Brittany Slay, BA, LE

Patient Engagement Specialist & Medical Aesthetician

The first voice you hear when you call Depew Plastics — and the first smile you see when you walk through our doors — belongs to Brittany Slay. As our Patient Engagement Specialist and a Licensed Esthetician, Brittany is the heart of the patient experience, guiding every visitor from their very first inquiry through every visit that follows.

Brittany is a distinguished military veteran whose service in military medicine instilled the discipline, precision, and grace under pressure that define her work today. She built on that foundation with a Bachelor of Arts in Healthcare Science from the University of Maryland and more than a decade of experience across healthcare and client-facing professional services — including leading large-scale operational improvements for global healthcare organizations and managing over 300 medical spa accounts as a professional skincare specialist, where she earned a 93% client retention rate and grew her territory by 136%. Few people understand both the business and the heart of aesthetic medicine the way Brittany does.

Her passion for skincare eventually called her to the treatment room itself. Brittany completed 1,000 hours of advanced clinical esthetics training at Atlanta’s renowned Elaine Sterling Institute, delivering more than 200 hands-on services along the way. She is skilled in customized facials, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and advanced skincare — expertise she brings to both her patient consultations and the treatments she personally provides.

Whether she’s welcoming you at the front desk, helping you find the perfect skincare regimen, or making sure your visit runs seamlessly from check-in to check-out, Brittany treats every patient the way she learned to in the military: with respect, attentiveness, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

Meet Brittany Anderson, LE, CLS

Surgery Scheduler & Medical Aesthetician

Booking surgery is a big decision — and Brittany Anderson makes sure it’s also a smooth one. As Depew Plastics’ Surgery Scheduler and Medical Aesthetician, Brittany is the steady hand guiding patients from consultation to the operating room, while also delivering the aesthetic treatments that keep skin glowing long after recovery.

Brittany’s connection to Dr. Depew goes back nearly a decade. She served as Lead Medical Esthetician certified in cosmetic laser treatments at the Plastic Surgery Center of the South in Marietta — the very practice where Dr. Depew spent eight years as a surgeon and Managing Partner — supporting a busy clinic seeing more than 200 patients a month. She went on to refine her aesthetic and clinical skills at Buckhead’s Olansky Dermatology, performing treatments and working side by side with physicians and injectors.

What sets Brittany apart is the rest of her résumé. She spent five years in accounting, payroll, and vendor management roles — processing hundreds of invoices weekly, reconciling accounts, and supervising teams — before returning to the field she loves. That rare blend of clinical aesthetics and financial operations expertise means Brittany handles the most sensitive part of surgical scheduling, from quotes and deposits to financing and payment coordination, with total accuracy and discretion.

Trained as a Medical Aesthetician at the Georgia Career Institute with additional studies in medical assisting and business at Southern Crescent Technical College, Brittany is fluent in both sides of the practice: the front office and the treatment room. Patients know her as organized, warm, and refreshingly straightforward — the person who answers every question, keeps every detail on track, and makes the path to surgery feel simple.