 Gordon Lee, MD FACS President California Society of Plastic Surgeons 2025-2026 |
Spring is in the air! The days are getting longer, and the sun is shining brighter in California. As President of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons it has truly been an honor to serve you this year.
I’m so excited to be seeing you at the upcoming annual meeting in Napa at the beautiful Napa Meritage Resort and Spa May 16-18, 2025. Our scientific program chairs Sheila Nazarian (Beverly Hills), John Pang (San Francisco), and Miles Pfaff (Irvine), and our program committee have worked hard to put together a very exciting program with plenty of high-impact learning. There’s plenty to do in Napa inside and outside the meeting. You’ll also find on the meeting homepage a list of attractions and activities for you and your guests and families to enjoy thanks to Bill McClure (Napa), our local venue Chair.
A thanks goes out to Esther Kim (UCSF) who has arranged a wine tasting class on site. What better place to learn about how to appreciate and taste wine than in Napa Valley itself at the Meritage by a leading expert!
We received a record breaking 340+ abstract submissions this year, which demonstrates the tremendous amount of interest in attending the annual meeting. The quality of abstracts that will be presented this year went through a very rigorous evaluation process by the program committee. Congratulations to everyone who has an abstract accepted for presentation!
Among the many highlights for this year’s meeting will be the Women’s Leadership Retreat, which will be held on May 15, 2025. Please register soon as spots are limited. Thanks to Angela Rodriguez (San Francisco) for putting this program together.
On Friday, May 16th, we’ll have special morning program for our young plastic surgeons, residents, students, and early career physicians. Thanks to John Pang and Kate Hinchcliff, our co-chairs of the Young Plastic Surgeons Committee.
As this is our 75th meeting, a truly historic event, there will be a Panel of the Past Presidents. We will hear from Jack Bruner and John Osborn (Sacramento) about the history of the CSPS and the major challenges our society has faced. We’ll have an open discussion with the CSPS past Presidents about the last 75 years since the organization’s founding in 1951! You will not want to miss this event.
We’ll also be having our Awards Gala on Saturday, May 17, 2025. This is going to be a special black-tie event with a string instruments ensemble. If you’ve not ballroom danced before it’s never too late to learn when you’re among friends. The Gala should be great fun and an elegant opportunity to share stories and laughs with colleagues.
Among the many accomplishments this past year, we held a very successful West Coast Regional Bootcamp at UC San Diego with Dr. Amanda Gosman (Immediate Past President) and her team in October 2024. We welcomed first year residents from both the integrated and the independent programs and had both lectures as well as hands on skills labs.
We formed a Resident Council with representatives from all of the California Plastic Surgery Programs. The resident council will provide valuable input as to how the CSPS can better serve the educational and professional needs of our plastic surgery trainees. Thanks to Haig Yenikomshian (USC), CSPS Program Director Liaison for encouraging our residents to participate in CSPS!
We also formed a Medical Student Council of California that has also provided valuable input for CSPS, and have been instrumental in gathering priceless interviews with our past presidents, which will be shown throughout the meeting in the exhibit hall at computer kiosks, and housed on our website for posterity.
