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In San Diego, business is booming. In health care, finance, law, wellness, tech, and more, the region’s business leaders are turning dreams into reality and bringing ideas to life.
In San Diego, business is booming. The people behind the city’s businesses use their expertise to elevate their respective fields and drive their industries forward. In health care, finance, law, wellness, tech, and more, the region’s business leaders are turning dreams into reality and bringing ideas to life. They’re influencers, strategists, entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators, and, above all, they’re invaluable assets to San Diego. Professionals like the ones features in the following pages are core to the business community. They are San Diego Magazine’s 2023 Icons of Business—and business is good.
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President/CEO, Copia Wealth Management and Insurance Services
Highlight: Named Financial Adviser of the Year twice; recently published her second book, Retirement By Design.
Elisabeth Dawson’s mission, passion, and purpose is helping people discover financial freedom and confidence. As a comprehensive financial advisor for 24 years, she is the founder of Copia Wealth Management and Insurance Services. Dawson is known for creating personalized solutions that bring lasting results, and one of her unique and powerful tools is a “Retirement Income for Life Blueprint,” which clearly outlines your income for the rest of your life. This blueprint pinpoints potential problems and illustrates how certain decisions today can impact your finances for years to come. “We help our clients understand possibilities they never knew could be within reach. By building a plan around their wish list, they can live their ‘dream financial life’ and protect their families without the fear of running out of money.”
Copia Wealth Management and Insurance Services
2333 Camino Del Rio South, Suite 240 San Diego, CA 92108
619-640-2622
CA LIC #0C72164, #0G81294
Investment advice offered through Copia Wealth Management Advisors, Inc.
Copia Wealth Management Advisors, Inc. is a registered investment adviser.
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Highlight: Chosen by his peers as one of San Diego Magazine’s Top Lawyers for over 10 years
Eric Gritz has earned a reputation for aggressive advocacy on behalf of injured workers as well as victims of negligence and their families. He has been the lead counsel in over 500 trials before the Worker’s Compensation Appeals Board, Social Security Administration, and Superior Courts and has recovered millions in workers’ compensation, social security, and personal injury cases. Mr. Gritz successfully defended the case of Brown v. Qualcomm before the California Supreme Court. He’s a guest speaker at local and regional workers’ compensation conventions and routinely speaks at seminars for attorneys earning continuing education credits. He has also acted as a judge pro tem with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and has achieved the Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer review rating of AV—preeminent, distinguished, and notable with very high legal ability and ethical standards.
Eric Gritz Law
7777 Alvarado Road Suite 720 La Mesa, CA 91942
619-826-8701
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Medical Director/Owner of Eros Beauty and Wellness
Highlight: Co-owner of Metro Family Physicians, a member of the SHARP Community Medical Group
Eros Beauty and Wellness offers a full scope of aesthetic services, ranging from skin rejuvenation to individually catered weight loss programs. Trained at the UCSD School of Medicine, founder Dr. Christine Eros is a practicing family physician who integrates innovative aesthetic medicine into her practice. With over 23 years of experience, Dr. Eros understands that just like medicine, cosmetic wellness requires deeply individualized care; she takes pride in treating the whole person. EBW’s list of services is extensive and includes laser therapies, Botox, fillers, permanent hair removal, and body contouring from EMSculpt. An active part of the Point Loma community, Dr. Eros cares deeply about her neighbors, and the prices offered at Eros Beauty and Wellness reflect her desire to make cosmetic treatments as widely available as possible.
Eros Beauty and Wellness
3689 Midway Drive #E, San Diego, CA 92110
619-481-4651
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Sunnen Law
Highlight: Since its inception, Sunnen Law has felt that every Family Law problem has a solution, and always works to find the right solution for each client.
Since dispute resolution rarely happens overnight, Certified Family Law Specialist Christopher J. Sunnen, founder of Sunnen Law knows that his clients need a trust and zealous advocate to help them navigate the complex and emotional process of family law issues. With over fifteen years of experience, Mr. Sunnen is first a specialist in Family Law, as well as a party who has taken many high conflict matters through trial. In addition, all of the attorneys at Sunnen Law also serve as “Minor’s Counsel” for the Court, which provides them with added perspective in complicated child custody matters. The entire staff at Sunnen Law know firsthand how complicated and emotionally traumatizing divorce and family law matters can be and are always present to support their clients throughout the process. Similarly, when not working for their clients, the staff of Sunnen Law is active in the community working to assist the public.
Call 619-255-9551 or e-mail us at [email protected] to speak with Mr. Sunnen, or one of his associates, and mention San Diego Magazine for a free consultation.
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Behind every beautiful space is a thoughtful process, and ASID San Diego is helping homeowners understand the value of professional design.
A perfectly designed home rarely happens by accident. Those kitchens that feel effortless and rooms that seem to tell a story the second you walk in? They’re usually the work of someone who knows exactly what they’re doing.
It’s knowing which ideas will actually work, which materials will hold up over time, and how to turn a collection of choices into a space that feels intentional. That’s where a professional interior designer comes in.
For the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) California San Diego Chapter, the goal is to help people see interior design as more than just the finished look. Behind every well-designed space is a process built on technical expertise. Designers are educated in everything from professional software and construction details to building codes, space planning, materials, and functionality.

“People don’t always realize how much goes on behind the scenes,” Kirsten Recce , current president of the ASID California San Diego Chapter, says. “Our designers are not just doing furniture placement and color selection and picking out new fluffy pillows. That’s not what they’re trained for.”
ASID members bring formal education, continued learning, and industry knowledge to their projects, helping create spaces that are not only beautiful, but designed to work. A paint color that changes completely depending on the lighting. A material that looks beautiful in a showroom but doesn’t make sense for everyday life. A layout that photographs well but doesn’t function for the people living there. These are the details where professional guidance can make all the difference.
Still, one of the biggest misconceptions about hiring an interior designer is that it’s reserved for massive renovations, luxury homes, or people who already know exactly what they want. The process can feel intimidating. Where do you begin? Is a designer worth the investment? What if you only need help with one room?
ASID’s answer: start with one hour.
ASID’s Spruce Up events break down one of the biggest barriers between homeowners and professional design: knowing where to begin. Held twice a year, the community program gives homeowners the chance to work directly with an ASID designer through a one-hour, $125 consultation in their own home. Whether you’re looking for advice on furniture placement, window treatments, kitchen and bath updates, remodeling ideas, vacation rentals, color selections or something else entirely, the upcoming September 2026 event offers an approachable way to get expert guidance before committing to a full project. Signups are open through Sept. 7, with consultations taking place Sept. 21 through Oct. 31. Proceeds benefit ASID San Diego’s educational and community programs. Register here!

“It’s a great opportunity for people who are in that exploratory phase,” Recce says. “Maybe they’re not sure they want to hire an interior designer yet, or they think it sounds daunting or expensive. This gives them a chance to discover what working with a designer is actually like.”
Design is personal. A good designer isn’t just creating a beautiful room; they’re helping create a space that fits the way someone lives.
“We’re a resource to all of San Diego County,” Recce says. “It doesn’t cost anything to pick up the phone and call and ask. We’ll answer.”
Follow ASID San Diego on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook for updates on upcoming events, or connect with the chapter directly at [email protected] or 619-548-8847.
A new program guides new moms through high-risk pregnancy and into the “fourth trimester”
Mai Vue was just 34 weeks pregnant when she delivered her baby. Her pregnancy had been complicated, and she’d had a recent second trimester pregnancy loss, which led to her receiving specialized care from Sean Daneshmand, MD, a Scripps Clinic perinatologist who oversees high-risk pregnancies. Dr. Daneshmand and his team took care of Mai during her pregnancy, through the birth of her healthy baby girl and beyond. Mai was part of a program Scripps launched to provide support to new moms in the weeks and months after delivery. The postpartum program, known as Scripps Health’s Fourth Trimester Continuum of Care, provides care for women with high-risk pregnancies to optimize their health after childbirth and reduce the risk of complications in future pregnancies. Click here to learn more.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Scripps Clinic’s Mohs surgery center is one of the most sophisticated in the country.
It’s estimated that one in five people in the U.S. will develop skin cancer at some point in their lives. When you factor in living in a sun-soaked city like San Diego and the outdoorsy lifestyle that comes with it, that figure can jump to as high as one in three, which makes early detection and intervention all the more important. Dermatologists at Bighorn Mohs and Dermatology Center are using innovative imaging methods and advanced surgical techniques to diagnose and treat skin cancer. For certain cancers in sensitive spots, like the face, dermatologists perform Mohs surgery, removing skin tissue layer by layer until reaching healthy, cancer-free tissue. They also use a process called immunohistochemistry to view tissue samples taken during Mohs surgery in far greater detail than previous methods. Read more about how Scripps is advancing skin cancer care here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Scripps Cancer Center helps an endurance athlete overcome his greatest challenge yet and get back in the race
When endurance athlete Isaac Sanchez learned he had cancer, he felt blindsided. He was healthy, surfed often and was training for an Ironman triathlon. But he had to put that on hold to undergo treatment. His physicians at Scripps Cancer Center developed a plan to treat the cancer in his tonsil and lymph nodes that included six-and-a-half weeks of near-daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy. He also worked with a Scripps Cancer Center dietitian to enhance his nutrition to promote strength and healing. Today, Isaac’s back to doing what he loves. Read more of his story here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Scripps study shows that some patients may be able to taper their dose and maintain results
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Innovative treatment could offer cancer patients new options with fewer side effects
Chemotherapy and radiation have long been considered gold standards of cancer treatment, but they can cause severe side effects. A promising new approach called theranostics—a combination of “therapeutics” and “diagnostics”—could offer patients with certain types of metastatic cancers new hope. It’s a two-step process that uses a drug that binds to specific receptors on cancer cells. Advanced imaging detects this radioisotope, allowing doctors to then use a second radioisotope that binds to the cancer cells and destroys them. Click here to learn more about how specialists at Scripps Cancer Center are using theranostics.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.