From New York to Vietnam Dr. Andrew Jacono’s Humanitarian Reach
A Park Avenue address and a surgical tent in a Vietnamese province represent very different worlds, but Dr. Andrew Jacono moves between them. His private practice in New York draws patients seeking technical excellence in facial cosmetic procedures; his humanitarian work draws him to communities in Latin America and Southeast Asia where children born with facial deformities have no viable path to surgical care. That range is not coincidence it reflects a deliberate model for how elite surgical skill should operate in the world.
Dr. Andrew Jacono is a dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon who has carried his reconstructive skills into two distinct humanitarian arenas: domestic violence recovery programs in the United States and international pediatric missions. The results, accumulated over more than two decades, include more than 100 surgery cases for abuse survivors and more than 750 cases for children abroad.
The FACE TO FACE Commitment
Through the FACE TO FACE project, an American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery initiative, Dr. Andrew Jacono donates reconstructive surgical procedures to survivors of domestic abuse. As senior advisor to the program, he has completed more than 100 such surgeries. The work addresses facial injuries scarring, improperly healed fractures, tissue damage that otherwise remain as permanent reminders of violence on the bodies of people who have survived it.
For nine years, Dr. Jacono also chaired ABOUT FACE: MAKING CHANGES, a benefit dedicated to domestic violence survivors. A “Good Guy” Award from the Center for the Women of New York and a formal commendation from U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, entered into the Congressional Record, stand as public acknowledgments of that sustained advocacy. The documentary series Facing Trauma, aired from 2011 on Discovery Fit & Health and later on the Oprah Winfrey Network, made his operating room work accessible to a television audience.
Vietnam, Colombia, Ecuador, and Beyond
Dr. Andrew Jacono’s international missions, conducted approximately twice each year, have reached children across Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries through partnerships with Healing the Children, the HUGS Foundation, and THAI Children. Cleft lips, palate deformities, ear malformations, facial tumors, and burn scars bring these children to the attention of mission teams. Without surgery, many would grow up unable to eat, speak, or hear normally and excluded from school and community because of visible differences that carry stigma in their home regions.
Fundraising for these missions has taken Dr. Jacono to high altitudes: summits of Mount Kilimanjaro, Cotopaxi, and Mount Elbrus have each served as platforms for raising awareness and funds. Back in New York, his position as Fellowship Director for the AAFPRS and his faculty role at Albert Einstein College of Medicine allow him to ensure that what he has built across 20-plus years of humanitarian work shapes how younger surgeons think about the purpose and reach of their profession. Read this article for more information.
Find more information about Dr. Andrew Jacono on https://ritzherald.com/dr-andrew-jaconos-path-to-becoming-a-leading-facial-plastic-surgeon/