Dr. Tom Albert is a professor at Oregon Health Sciences University in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery as well as Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Albert was involved in an extensive medical education effort concerning cleft care with Project Hope in China from 1983-1993 and has continued to be involved independently since then. His interest has been to develop ways to extend truly comprehensive cleft care beyond surgery alone to difficult to reach populations.
Kelly Jensen, B.A., M.B.A, is a business leader and management consultant with over 25 years experience introducing new technologies and management practices in the United States and Latin America. Specializing in healthcare, Mr. Jensen has worked with over 300 hospitals and health care systems to improve their effectiveness. In addition to supporting FACES, Mr. Jensen provides leadership for volunteer programs in faith-based organizations and alumni associations of Harvard University. He is fluent in English and Spanish, and conversant in German and Tzotzil Maya.
Dr. Dana Smith is a Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon who is currently Director of the Kaiser Permanente Northwest Cleft Palate Clinic in Portland, OR. He is an Otolaryngologist at Kaiser and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at OHSU. Dana’s wife is a medical student at OHSU; he has a 18-year-old stepson and a 8-year- old daughter. Hobbies include skiing, hiking, rock-climbing and travel. Dr. Smith has been to Peru seven times for cleft surgery trips and to Russia once for a facial reconstructive surgery trip.
Angela David has recently taken on the role of Executive Director, and will travel with the team to help manage the daily activities and maintain the Electronic Health Records. Angela is also a certified Spanish-English medical interpreter. This will be her second surgical trip, and she is looking forward to reuniting with the wonderful people of FACES and the local coordinators in Peru.
Dr. Myriam Loyo is the current Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery fellow at Oregon Health and Science Univsersity (OHSU). She is originally from the Pacific Coast in Mexico and comes to OHSU from the Johns Hopkins Hospital where she completed her residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Myriam is passionate about international outreach and has participated in medical missions to Mexico and Rwanda participating in complex facial reconstructions.
Dr. Michael Kim is a Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at OHSU. Dr. Kim, a Seattle native, graduated from Princeton University, University of Washington School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Residency. He reestablished his Northwest roots by training in Facial Plastic Surgery at OHSU, where he is now on staff after a two-year stint at the Mayo Clinic, Arizona. He has been actively involved in Cleft and Craniofacial Surgery since medical school.
Dr. Lisa Morris is a Craniofacial Surgeon who went to Oregon Health and Science University for Ear, Nose and Throat residency and then did 2 years of fellowship training in New York and Salt Lake City learning to care for patients with cleft lip and palate and other craniofacial abnormalities. She is currently working with the Craniofacial Foundation of Utah in Salt Lake City as a craniofacial and facial plastic surgeon. This is Lisa’s third surgical trip to Peru with FACES and she is looking forward to working with such an energetic, caring and phenomenal group of people.
Dr. Jessyka Lighthall is an assistant professor in Otolaryngology at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. She completed her residency training in otolaryngology at Oregon Health & Science University and a fellowship in Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery through the University of Minneapolis. She currently exclusively practices Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery with clinical interests encompassing cosmetic surgery, treatment of congenital anomalies, reconstruction of cancer defects, and surgery to treat patients with facial trauma. In addition, she is active in resident and medical student education and research relating to facial plastic surgery. Her personal interests include swing dancing, hiking, camping, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. Dr. Lighthall has previously been involved with FACES as a resident surgeon and is looking forward to returning as a faculty surgeon this year.
Dr. Vaqar Syed is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukie. He has worked and studied all over the world, including in Karachi, Pakistan, and London. Dr. Syed completed his Anesthesia Residency and Fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesia at Medical College of Wisconsin. He joined the faculty after completing his fellowship, where he is working to date. This is Dr. Syed’s third trip to Peru with FACES.
Dr. Raquel Hernandez was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She attended Baylor University in Waco, TX where she graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Neuroscience. She then moved to Fort Worth, Texas where she completed medical school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. After choosing Anesthesiology as a specialty, Raquel moved to Chicago, IL to complete her Anesthesiology Residency where she was elected to serve as Administrative Chief Resident during her last year. Drawn to the outdoors and the less frigid winters of the Northwest, Raquel and her husband moved to Portland where she is currently completing her Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. In her free time, Raquel loves spending time with her husband and their 5 month old puppy Jake. He’s very entertaining!
Dr. Richard Wick grew up in Pendleton, Oregon, a small town known for it’s rodeo (and not much else!). He met his future wife, Sarah, when he was 18 years old and both attended Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington where Richard studied Biology and Philosophy. He went to medical school at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and returned to the northwest to pursue his residency in Anesthesiology at OHSU. He enjoys traveling, watching movies, and hiking around Portland.
Dr. Jon Ward is from Nebraska and moved to Oregon with his wife after briefly living in Spokane, WA. Jon attended Oregon State University and studied Microbiology and Chemistry. He is currently finishing medical school at OHSU and plans to pursue residency training in anesthesiology. He has two children, a five year old boy named Sam and a four month old girl, Cora. Jon and his wife Christine (an RN) plan to work together on international medical mission trips in the future. He enjoys fishing, hiking and mountaineering.
Brian Ryder was born and raised in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He completed his undergrad work at University of Pennsylvania and then the Anesthesia program at Lankenau Medical Center in Philadephia, PA. Brian has worked at Kaiser for the 12 years, 8 of which he was the Chief CRNA. He has been married to Marsha Ryder for 32 years and has three children: Stephanie, who is working on her Masters in Public Health, Ian, who is working in middle management with the Four Seasons Hotel and Alex, who is currently with the Peace Corps in Ghana, Africa. Brian has worked with Operation Smile for the past 14 years and this will be his fourth mission with FACES Foundation.
Jesse Rader is a nurse in south operating room at OHSU and this is her fifth trip with FACES Foundation. She was in the Peace Corps serving in Swaziland 1994-1996. Jesse has a special kinship with Peru being that her mother is Peruvian and she has been traveling there since she was a baby. She enjoys working with this team each year, the hard work, dedication and the look on the faces of the families at the end of the day, which she says makes all the effort worth it!
Theresa Nera is an operating room nurse at OHSU’s South OR. She has been on multiple international mission trips, and is a returning member of the FACES’ surgical team.
Tammy Berks has been a nurse with Kaiser for 25 years working in pediatrics and day surgery. She has been involved with fundraising efforts for FACES and this is her sixth mission trip to Peru with FACES. Tammy has formed ongoing friendships with both staff and patients in Peru. She is very involved with her sons’ sports and the Gladstone community. She is very thankful to her husband and children for their continued support.
Beth Delaney is second-year returning member of the FACES surgical team. She has been a PACU RN for 8 years and currently works at Kaiser Westside. She lives in NW Portland and, on her free time, enjoys yoga, hiking and cooking.
Tracey Naylor is currently a Registered Nurse at Kaiser PACU and this is her fourth trip to Peru with FACES Foundation. She has a 17-year-old son and 11-year-old step-daughter. Tracey and her family love the great outdoors, all seasons and they love to travel.
Derik Gunderson is a Surgical Tech currently working at OHSU. He has a beautiful 11-year-old daughter named Avery, and an amazing girlfriend (the one-and-only Tracey Naylor!) Together they snowboard, wakeboard, camp, boat, work in the yard, and all-around have a great time! This is Derik’s third trip to Peru with FACES.
Jenn Ploeger made her way to Oregon via Colorado and Utah and loves what Oregon has to offer from the mountains to the ocean. You can find Jenn on an outdoors adventure with family, friends and her two dogs. She works at OHSU as a registered nurse in the South operating room. It took her a while to fulfill her goal of becoming a nurse, but she learned first hand that persistence pays off! She graduated in June 2012 with her BSN. This is her second medical mission and she’s grateful to be part of the FACES team.
Victoria Buchanan grew up on the East coast in North Carolina and Virginia and most of her family still lives there. She has been in Portland since 2007. Before she moved to Portland she lived in Northern California for a few years and was a massage therapist. She graduated from OHSU School of Nursing in June 2012 and began an internship with OHSU South O.R. that August. She is on the ENT, OMFS, and Plastics team and those are a majority of the procedures she takes part in, but also do a lot of General procedures. Going on medical missions is something she has always wanted to do, and this will be her second mission with FACES.
Heather Foster has worked for Kaiser for about 33 years doing Nicu/Newborn nursery, Recovery room, some OR circulating (“a very very long time ago but I loved it!”)
and for the last 15 years has worked as team lead and advice nurse for out-patient pediatrics.
She has participated in 13 medical mission trips/disaster relief trips with Medical Teams International (formerly NW Medical Teams). She says she’s really excited and looking forward to this opportunity with FACES, since “…none of my previous trips have been in a hospital setting. We have always done medical brigades to villages.”
Morgan Luke has been an RN for 7 years, working in a variety of settings from ICU to PACU. She says, “I love nursing and find it to be very rewarding. I look forward to working with FACES foundation surgical team!”
Leah Vorpahl received her BSN from Creighton University in 2011 and began her nursing career in public health at a non-for-profit family health clinic in Colorado Springs, CO.. In 2013 she completed a Versant Residency Program in Perioperative Nursing and has been working in the OR ever since. Leah moved to Portland in 2014 after accepting a job in OHSU’s South OR. She loves the Pacific Northwest and has been enjoying Oregon’s great wonders! This will be Leah’s first mission trip and she feels very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such a great team of caring healthcare professionals while changing peoples’ lives for the better.