Dr. Hamdan is President and Co-Founder of Global Smile Foundation, a 501C3 Boston-based non-profit foundation that provides comprehensive and integrated pro bono cleft care for underserved patients throughout the world. He has been involved with outreach cleft programs for over the past 37 years. Dr. Hamdan is an Otolaryngologist/Facial Plastic Surgeon with former university appointments at Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine and Boston University School of Medicine.

Saleigh Adams is a Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Cape Town with 15 years of experience in academic Plastic Surgery. He was the Head of Paediatric Plastic Surgery and the Cleft Unit at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital (RCWMCH). He previously co-headed the flagship Burn Unit at RCWMCH and has recently been the Acting Head of the Division of Plastic, Reconstructive and Maxillofacial Surgery at GSH. He manages surgical aspects of general adult and paediatric plastic surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery, craniofacial surgery and all aspects of advanced wound care. He has ensured best clinical practice through academic excellence and innovation.

Dr. Breugem is professor in the Division of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is pediatric plastic surgeon working in the Emma Children’s Hospital in Amsterdam. He is also director of Interplast Holland. This NGO help plastic surgery unit’s in Low Income Countries create durable and long lasting care, by training, inspiring and funding plastic surgeons to provide care in their own region. In 2003 he finished his PhD in vascular malformations. He has published more than140 peer reviewed articles and has given more than 100 international presentations.

Dr. Mann graduated from Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine in 1978. He completed plastic surgery residencies in Grand Rapids and a pediatric plastic surgery fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He established the cranial facial program in Grand Rapids in 1985 and has been the director of the Oral Cleft Program in Grand Rapids since 1987. He is best known for his work in cleft lip and palate care and cranial facial surgery Dr. Mann published a 29-year follow-up study that shows The Double Z-Plasty +/- Buccal Flap Repair can obtain the same excellent speech results for all clefts, regardless of width or classification.

Dr. Vijayakumar is a Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon and a Clinical and Research Fellow in Cleft, Craniofacial and Facial Plastic Surgery at Sri Ramachandra University. She also has clinical experience in pediatric dentistry and dental care for children with cleft. She is involved in clinical research on cleft children with velopharyngeal incompetence and currently having two grants in India: The notable Lady Tata Memorial Trust Grant and the institutional GATE grant. She has also been a part of a prestigious Government of India Project on Safety Protocols for Dental Procedures in India. Her passion is to treat and rehabilitate children with cleft and craniofacial deformities.

Dr. Chen is currently the Director of the Craniofacial Center and Professor in Surgery at the Taipei Medical University Hospital and Taipei Medical University and has been the director of Craniofacial Center of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for more than 15 years. Dr. Chen graduated from the National Taiwan University Medical School in 1981 and received his plastic surgical training at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from 1984 to 1987. He was a clinical fellow of Craniofacial Surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto in Canada, from 1990 to 1991. He also served as the National Secretary of Taiwan in International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery from 2006 to 2014. He is the council member of the Taiwan Cleft Palate –Craniofacial Association.

Dr. Sommerlad was previously President of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1996) and the President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons (1998). His awards include an Honorary Doctorate of Science (Med) from University College, London, and Honorary Fellowships at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Sri Lankan College of Surgeons, and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. He holds an Honorary Membership of The British Orthodontic Society and a Hunterian Professorship of The Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was previously a member of the Clinical Standards Advisory Board (CSAG) on Cleft Lip and Palate and the CSAG Implementation Group. He was Co-Founder and Chairman of the charity CLEFT.

Dr. Fayyaz started the Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery at Allied Hospital Faisalabad, Pakistan in June 1999 and headed that department for 6 years. He also established a non-profit organization; CLAPP (Cleft Lip and Palate Association of Pakistan) in 2003 in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He headed the department of Plastic Surgery at Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore since June 2005 for 14 years till his retirement in 2019. He established a small hospital, dedicated for Cleft Lip and Palate patients in Lahore Pakistan and since Jan. 2008 till today, more than 22,000 Cleft Lip and Palate patients have been operated free of any charges. CLAPP Hospital, Lahore also provides Free services in Audiology, cleft orthodontics, and speech therapy.

Dr. Onguti is PAACLIP’s Executive Secretary. He is also the Honorary CEO And Reconstructive and Maxillofacial surgeon at Help A Child Face Tomorrow, Reconstructive Surgery outreach programme for Craniofacial deformities based in Nairobi, Kenya

MD from Cream Medical School, USSR (1989).General Surgery Specialty, AAU (2000). Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Subspecialty, AAU (2007). Assistant Professor of Surgery at AAU since 2007.
Roles in leadership within plastic surgery and cleft lip and palate programs. Previous positions include health manager, physician, and surgical department head in Ethiopia.
Recognized for contributions in surgery with awards in Ethiopia and Nigeria, and acknowledgments from various international foundations and associations. Member of multiple medical and surgical societies, including the Ethiopian Medical Association and the Pan-African Cleft Lip and Palate Association.
Lifelong member of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society.

Dr. Esenlik received her DDS in 1997 and her PhD in Orthodontics from Ankara University in 2004. She worked in private practice in Ankara for three years. In 2017, she became a tenured faculty member at Süleyman Demirel University, where she was appointed Associate Professor in 2013. She was part of the Cleft and Orthognathic Surgery Team in Isparta and a Research Fellow in the Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery at New York University Medical School (2015-2016). Dr. Esenlik conducted many clinical and experimental research projects in the areas of cleft lip and palate treatment and functional orthopedics. Twenty doctorate students and residents graduated under her consultation.

Dr. Kummer is the former Senior Director of the Division of Speech-Language Pathology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. Dr. Kummer has done over 300 national and international lectures and seminars in the areas of cleft palate, velopharyngeal dysfunction, and even business practices in speech-language pathology. She is the author of numerous professional articles, 31 book chapters, and 4 books including Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Conditions: A Comprehensive Guide to Clinical Management, 4th Edition. She was the developer of the Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures (SNAP) , and she holds a patent on the Nasoscope.

Salome Maswime is a Professor and the Head Global Surgery at the University of Cape Town, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, and the President of the South African Clinician Scientists Society. She is a member of the Academy of Science South Africa, Next Einstein Fellow, World Economic Forum Young Scientist and World Laureate Forum Young Scientist. Her research interests are global obstetric surgery, and placental science. Prof Maswime was acknowledged as a Trailblazer and Young Achiever by the President of South Africa in 2017, named in the 2017 Mail and Guardian 200 young South Africans, and 50 most powerful women in 2020. In 2020 received the Research in Health award from One Africa. And was recognised in 2021 by Encyclopaedia Brittanica among 20 Shapers of the Future of Medicine.

Dr. Persson is a professor of health sciences at Kristianstad University, Sweden. One of his primary research interests is working with individuals with visible differences or negative body image concerning psychosocial and public health aspects. He has extensive knowledge of working with socially disadvantaged groups across Europe as well as specializing in the methodological and pedagogical development of courses ranging from basic to advance level in psychology, public health and health education. He has a PhD in Medicine, Masters Degrees in Public Health and Psychology, and his research has been published in academic peer-review journals .Currently, he is also the Chair of the EU COST Action CA16234 “European Cleft and Craniofacial Initiative for Equality in Care”.