Dwight Putnam, CP/L

After transitioning from a ten-year career as a commercial sculptor/fabricator during which time he created 3D characters and environments—artificial rocks and trees, giant cell phones, dinosaurs, and life-size whales, for example—Dwight Putnam, CP/L, used similar skills at a cosmetic prosthetics company, where he found his calling in O&P. His first patient was an elderly woman for whom he fabricated a prosthetic silicone nose after she lost hers to cancer. “Seeing firsthand how my skillset contributed to the restoration of quality of life for this woman was indeed an eye opener,” he said. “I never looked back.” Putnam eventually attended the O&P certificate program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and then secured a residency at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC), Dallas, where he is now a staff prosthetist.