NCEA History
The NCEA was founded by Susanne S. Warfield in January 2000. At the time, the American Academy of Dermatology’s (AAD) Allied Health Committee was looking to liaise with the skin care industry.
Ms. Warfield, a member of the AAD’s Allied Health Committee, was asked to form a coalition of the over 30 associations representing skin care professionals in the United States.
The inaugural meeting was held in June 25th 2000 and 22 associations were represented. The National Coalition of Esthetics & Related Associations was formed.
Through growth and transformation the NCEA has maintained (+/-) 18 association members (many of the original 22 no longer exist or have merged) and has grown its corporate members to include manufacturers/distributors, schools, and post-graduate training facilities. Individual memberships were an added membership category in 2002 to further represent the growing need for representation of esthetic professionals to our state regulatory boards.
The association officially updated its name to better reflect its membership in 2003 to the National Coalition of Estheticians, Manufactures/Distributors & Associations. The coalition maintained the acronym of NCEA.
One of NCEA’s goals was to bring the industry to agree on use of terminology, esthetician job tasks, and the hours of training necessary to be successful in today’s skin care industry. The NCEA’s 600 and 1200 Hour Job Tasks were developed in late 2001 and have been the focus of developing further National Standards and Curriculums.
The NCEA Certified credential came about through the fundamental need to assist state regulatory boards in maintaining consumer safety, licensee mobility/endorsement (formally known as reciprocity), grandfathering to Master Esthetician licensing, international recognition and meeting the 1200-hour job tasks of the skin care professional to be successful in today’s skin care industry.
The first “Approved Training Facility (ATF)” was in Eugene, OR owned by Judith Culp, the NW Institute of Esthetics. Ms. Culp an avid lecturer for higher education for estheticians as well as the Editorial Contributer for the Milady Advanced Esthetics Textbook. Within a year, another dozen ATFs came into being to teach the NCEA Certified Prep Classes to undergraduate students and post graduates.
The NCEA Certified Prep Classes have been taught at many industry trade shows including Face & Body, Annual meetings of the Society of Dermatology SkinCare Specialists, and at corporate trainings such as Murad and Skin Blends.
The development of the “Commission on Accreditation (COA)” in 2009 was to further aid NCEA’s goal of standardizing continuing education on a national basis. At this time, only 10 states require CEs prior to relicensure. Through the COA, states should find maintainance of continuing education an easier task and we urge them in rule/regulation to require a minimum of 12 CEs prior to relicensure.
In May of 2009, the first “National Esthetic Teacher Training (NETT)” Conference was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, with esthetician focused teacher training sessions. Lesson planning, teacher tools and technology helping teachers to energize and recharge their classrooms . Every year the teachers can – at no charge – attend a preconference NCEA Certification Prep Class in to reach their potential and earn the NCEA Certified credential.
In December of 2009, the “NETT News – The Esthetic Teacher Resource” was launched to over 1,000 teachers in the United States, Canada & abroad. It serves as a monthly enewsletter of teaching tidbits, and review of federal and state issues that may affect their schools.
In March 2011, the NCEA Certification program expanded to include in-house testing and provide secure online testing. NCEA Approved Training Facilities that met the Testing Center criteria were then allowed to provide secure, proctored testing to Candidates that have met the application requirements.
In November 2011, NCEA partnered its National Esthetic Teacher Training (NETT) conferences with the International Congress of Esthetics and Spa. In March 2012, the first of four events was held in Miami Beach, FL. The next three venues are Dallas, TX, Long Beach, CA and Philladelphia, PA.
August 7, 2012, the NETT News The Esthetic Resource launched to the NCEA subscriber base of over 7,000 and became the first industry publication to offer licensed estheticians, esthetic teachers/school/students, a weekly review of Marketing 101, Business brief, teaching tips, Tuesday’ Toon and much more. On July 29, 2015 the name of the enewsletter updated to NCEA News. Click here for the NCEA News Archives
On June 23, 2020, the name of the association was shortened to National Coalition of Estheticians Associations.
