Michael R. Lepore Jr., MD, FACS, RPVI, was born in Freeport, New York and moved to Sarasota with his parents in 1974. He graduated at the top of his class from Cardinal Mooney High School, where he was the captain of the school football team and a highly ranked tennis player. Dr. Lepore attended college at New College of Florida, the independent public honors college for the state of Florida. There he performed field biological research on Sarasota bay, published a thesis, and graduated with honors.

Dr. Lepore graduated from the University of South Florida College of Medicine. This led to general surgery training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) under the supervision of Arnold G. Diethelm, M.D.; a world renowned renal transplantation surgeon. During his residency at UAB, Dr. Lepore participated in research on carotid artery disease and blunt aortic injury presenting his findings at a national vascular surgical meeting and publishing them in the Annals of Vascular Surgery. He finished as an Administrative Chief Resident at UAB, an honor bestowed upon only the top residents in the surgery program.

Dr. Lepore went on to a two-year vascular surgical fellowship at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ochsner Clinic was one of the few vascular programs offering a “hybrid” fellowship comprised of training in both complex open vascular surgery and endovascular therapy. This involved experience in catheter based vascular therapy by percutaneous (minimally invasive) techniques with balloon angioplasty and stenting of all vascular beds including the carotid, vertebral, subclavian, aortic, mesenteric, renal, iliac, femoral, and tibial arteries. He participated in phase II research trials implanting “state-of-the-art” aortic stent grafts for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Dr. Lepore also studied vascular medicine resulting in publications on the medical and pharmacologic treatment of vascular disease. He also has publications in the Journal of Vascular Surgery and has written book chapters on complications related to vascular closure devices and the surgical treatment of vascular trauma.

Dr. Lepore returned “home” to specialize in vascular and endovascular surgery. He continues to remain passionate about the treatment of vascular disease, providing the most current open and minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of arterial and venous disease. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, board certified in Vascular Surgery, a member of the Florida Vascular Society, International Society of Endovascular Specialists, as well as a member of the Southern Association of Vascular Surgery and Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society (formerly PVSS). Dr. Lepore is a Past Chief-Of-Staff at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and is on their Clinical Integration Steering Committee and Credentials Committee. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery (Vascular) for Florida State University Medical School, and has repeatedly been named a “Top Doctor” by the Castle Connolly Corporation.

Dr. Lepore is happily married with two young daughters. He continues to play competitive tennis but has given up football for golf!