Editorial Introductions

Current Opinion in Otolaryngology Linyi, China; Ecuador; El Salvador, Vietnam, and Moldova. He has also traveled to Zagrab, Croatia, to do reconstructive work on those injured by the war. He has received service awards from the Onondaga County Medical Society, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery for this work. Ryan WintersRyan WintersDr Ryan Winters is a Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology and Plastic Surgery at Tulane University. He earned his undergraduate degree in genetics and cell biology at Washington State University and his medical degree from the University of Vermont. During medical school he also completed a Tropical Medicine Certificate from La Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. He then completed his residency in Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery at Tulane University, and completed a fellowship in Craniomaxillofacial Surgery and Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at SUNY Upstate in Syracuse, as well as an additional fellowship in Microvascular Surgery and Head & Neck Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr Winters is an active surgeon with Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, providing facial reconstruction to children and adults with noma, a facial gangrene associated with extreme poverty and malnutrition, as well as providing services through the MSF Telemedicine program as a Senior Specialist. Additionally, he provides cleft lip and palate care, as well as complex facial reconstruction to patients in India via The India Project, Inc., and serves on the board of directors for this non-profit organization. He has volunteered with other Non-Governmental Organizations including Mercy Ships, Liga International, and the United Nations in countries including Mexico, Peru, Nigeria, India, Haiti, and Guinea. Dr Winters focuses his clinical practice on complex facial reconstruction, congenital anomalies, and facial trauma repair, and his ongoing research interests include surgical outcomes in resources-limited settings, novel uses for free tissue transfer in head and neck reconstruction, and free tissue transfer in pediatric patients.