Stony Brook Medicine Department of Surgery's plastic surgeon Tara L. Huston, MD, FACS, has been chosen to serve as president of the Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons (NESPS). Dr. Huston is the first physician from Stony Brook to earn this honor, and only the second female to be chosen as president.
"I am humbled and honored to serve as president of the largest plastic surgical society in the Northeast," said Dr. Huston. "This is only the second time in 40 years [and first in 25 years] that a woman has served as Society president."
The NESPS' first and, until now, only female president was Dr. Mary McGrath, who presided over the Society's 15th annual meeting in 1998. Dr. McGrath is currently Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of California at San Francisco.
"I think it is important to have diversity in leadership positions because it can strengthen an organization through novel ideas and perspectives from people with different backgrounds and unique life experiences," said Dr. Huston. "It also is an honor to serve as a role model for other female faculty, residents in training and medical students," she continued.
The NESPS Nominating Committee, comprised of the most senior members of the Board of Directors and Past Presidents, chooses the incoming president based on the candidate's record of extensive service to the Society and Board of Directors. Dr. Huston has been a member of the NESPS for fifteen years and will serve a one-year term as president.
"Not only is Dr. Tara Huston supremely deserving of taking over the reins of presidency of the NESPS this year, but she is the proud inaugural recipient of the Susan B. Anthony coin tradition, given to the first woman president in 25 years and tasked with the charge of ensuring that the coin will be handed off to another woman leader of this prestigious organization," said Immediate Past President Howard N. Langstein, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The NESPS provides a regional forum for highly-qualified surgeons to discuss surgical, educational, ethical and other professional issues at the forefront of plastic and reconstructive surgery. Their mission is to be a collegial forum for plastic surgery education and professional growth, and they are guided by the values of education, integrity, camaraderie and inclusivity.
"On behalf of the Department of Surgery, I want to congratulate Dr. Tara Huston for this much-deserved achievement," said Apostolos K. Tassiopoulos, MD, FACS; Chair, Department of Surgery; Professor of Surgery and Chief, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Division. "Dr. Huston is a highly skilled plastic surgeon and constantly demonstrates leadership in our department."
Dr. Huston plans on using her term as NESPS president to advance the Society's mission "by continuing the education of our membership in the art and science of plastic and reconstructive surgery, identifying and supporting the needs of our membership and providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all members." Her presidency will culminate in hosting the Society's annual meeting next September in Philadelphia (the location of the NESPS' inaugural meeting in 1984).
A native Long Islander, Dr. Huston's connection to Stony Brook began in the 1990s as a Simons Research Fellow in Dr. Berhane Ghebrehiwet's lab. After graduating from Harvard College in 1997 with a biochemistry degree, she returned to Stony Brook for medical school and graduated in 2001. She then completed a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell and a plastic surgery residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell/Columbia. In 2011, she returned to the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University as a faculty member.
Tara L. Huston, MD, FACS, is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Dermatology in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, President of the Stony Brook Medicine Medical Staff, Chair of the School of Medicine Committee on Admissions and Leader of the Melanoma Management Team. She is also a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Association of Women Surgeons and the New York Regional Society of Plastic Surgeons.