Monthly Noma Webinars

Originally from the United States, Dr Ryan Winters was recruited to Newcastle in 2022, and is now very fortunate to call Newcastle his home. He completed his undergraduate degree in Genetics and Cell Biology via the Honours College at Washington State University, and his medical degree at the University of Vermont (the seventh-oldest medical school in the USA). This was followed by Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery specialty training at Tulane University in New Orleans, the second-oldest training programme in the country, in 2013. He passed his American Board of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Certification Examination in 2014, and completed a fellowship in Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and Craniomaxillofacial Surgery at the State University of New York, becoming Board-Certified by the American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. He then became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and subsequently completed an additional fellowship in Head & Neck Surgical Oncology and Microvascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Since that time, he has focused his practice in three areas: 1) facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, 2) head and neck cancer surgery and major head & neck reconstruction, and 3) paediatric head and neck surgical conditions. In the inerim, Dr Winters completed a Master’s degree in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and another in Emergency Management at Arizona State University. Dr Winters achieved Fellowship in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2023, one year after migrating permanently to Australia. He maintains academic appointments as an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, and of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Tulane University in New Orleans, United States.

            Dr Winters is an active surgeon with Mèdecins Sans Frontiéres/Doctors Without Borders, as well as other Non-Governmental Organisations including the United Nations, LIGA International, Mercy Ships, MRDC International, Healing the Children Northeast, Razom Ukraine, and The India Project, Inc., where he serves on the board of directors. He is an internationally-known expert in, and is a sought-after speaker regarding, complex facial reconstruction, cleft lip and palate surgery, management of atypical facial clefts, and the management of facial trauma (both bony fractures and soft-tissue repairs). He has worked in this regard in Mexico, Haiti, Peru, Nigeria, Guinea, India, Bangladesh, Colombia, Ukraine, and South Sudan, always emphasizing building local surgical capacity by partnering with local, in-country, surgeons and physicians, rather than simply operating and leaving after a short time.