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A Healthy Smile is Just the Beginning®

Usama Hamdan MD, FICS

Board President
President & Co-Founder, Global Smile Foundation
Founder, Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop

Krishna G. Patel MD, PhD

Board Secretary

  • Professor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Director of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery,
    & Co-Director of MUSC Craniofacial Anomalies Cleft Lip and Palate Team, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

Raymond Ciccolo

  • President, Village Automotive Group
  • Founder & President, Ciccolo Family Foundation

Jay Schnitzer MD, PhD

  • Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Mitre Corporation
  • Former Director, Defense Sciences Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
  • Former Chief Medical Officer & Senior Vice President, Boston Scientific Corporation

Talal Ali Ahmad

Board Treasurer
Director of Information Technology
(Volunteer)

  • Founder & CEO, Predictive Healthcare
  • Former President, Entrada Communications

Navil Sethna MD, FAAP

  • Professor of Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School
  • Clinical Director, Mayo Family Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Center, Department of Anesthesia, Boston Children’s Hospital

Serena Kassam DMD

Presurgical & Dental Director (Volunteer)

  • Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, New York University College of Dentistry
  • Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia
  • Clinical Attending, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, BC Children’s Hospital

Advisory Board

Joe Daher

  • President, Kai Capital Management

Babak Azizzadeh MD, FACS

  • Chairman & Director of the CENTER for Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery
  • Co-Director, Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship Program, Keck School of Medicine
  • Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery, UCLA

Stephen Maturo MD, LT Colonel, USAF, MC, FS

  • Pediatric Otolaryngologist, Maine Medical Center
  • Associate Professor, Uniformed Services University
  • Former Director, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center
  • Former Director of Residency, Department of Otolaryngology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Tripp Amdur

  • Group President of Medline Industries
  • Medline Director in Europe, Asia, and Australia

RG Conlee

Director of EMR (Volunteer)

  • President and CEO, Tylark Corporation
  • Former Chief Innovation Officer, Xerox Services

Stephen Harris MD, FACS

  • Harris Plastic Surgery
  • Chief of Plastic Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital
  • Staff Surgeon, former Chief of Plastic Surgery, NSLIJ – Southside Hospital

George Blaser

  • President, Coast to Coast Medical

Paul Cody

  • Corporate Operations Specialist, Prospect Airport Service

Kenneth Pellegrino CEBT

  • Manager, Clinical Engineering
  • Chairman, Laser Committee, Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary

Robert Karch MD, MPH, FAAP

  • Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Univ. of Central Florida College of Medicine
  • Deputy Secretary for Children’s Medical Services, Florida Department of Health

Eric R. Kaufman AB, LL.B

  • Partner, Kaufman & Kaufman, Attorneys

Laura Hetzler MD, FACS

  • Program Director & Associate Professor, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Department of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery
  • Director, Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL) Children’s Hospital Cleft Team & Facial Nerve Disorders Clinic

Denise Carolina Franco Mera Esq, MBA

  • President, Fundacion Global Smile-Ecuador

James Liau MD, FACS

    • Associate Professor Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Kentucky College of Medicine
    •  Section Chief Craniofacial and Pediatric, University of Kentucky College of Medicine
    • UK Chandler Hospital Senior Inpatient Medical Director, University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Raj Vyas, MD

Director of Research (Volunteer)
Director of Fellowship
(Volunteer)

  • Professor and Vice-Chairman, UC Irvine Department of Plastic Surgery
  • Chief of Pediatric Plastic Surgery, CHOC Children’s Hospital
  • Co-Chair, CCCW Curriculum Committee 2023, 2022

Khatmeh Osseiran-Hanna

Executive Vice President for Strategic Advancement (Volunteer)

Honorary Board

Kristine Marcy

  • Member, Board of Directors, National Academy of Public Administration
  • Former Associate Director, United States Marshals Service
  • Former Associate Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice

Maryann Boyle Murray MBA, MPH

  • Principle, MBM Development Communications

Christopher Hughes DMD, PhD

  • Former Chair, Pediatric Dentistry and Community Oral Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Junior Board

The GSF Junior Board brings together student leaders from across the U.S. to raise awareness about GSF’s humanitarian outreach cleft programs worldwide and to help with fundraising campaigns that support interdisciplinary care for so many underserved patients born with clefts. Junior Board members work within their school and social networks to hold educational events and fundraisers as well as volunteer at GSF events.

Follow the GSF Junior Board on Instagram at @gsfjuniorboard!

  • Kylie Azizzadeh, Duke University
  • Logan Azizzadeh, Harvard-Westlake School
  • Tiffany Berookhim, Palisades School
  • Thea Daher, London
  • Brett Damavandi, Milken School
  • Saba Daneshmand, Brentwood School
  • Selma Nuwara, Cold Spring Harbor High School
  • Vanessa Kahwaji, Little Flower Academy
  • Lina Joy, University of Florida
  • Mila Haffar, Hewitt School
  • Michael Nessralla, Northeastern University
  • Alison Swierczynski, Northeastern University
  • Nicole Nessralla, Boston University
  • Serena Serhan, University of Massachusetts-Boston
  • Jade Stanford, Harvard-Westlake School
  • Serina Tan, George Washington High School