Karen K. Evans, M.D., Samir Mardini, M.D., and Phillip G. Arnold, M.D.

I want to thank Drs. Evans, Mardini, and Arnold for serving as guest editors for this issue of Seminars in Plastic Surgery on “Chest Wall Reconstruction” and the excellent group of authors selected for their contributions.

Karen K. Evans, M.D., is an assistant professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and is chief of plastic surgery at the Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Evans obtained her medical degree at the University of Missouri, Columbia School of Medicine, and completed her general and plastic surgery residencies at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. For someone so early in her career, Dr. Evans has published extensively in journals, produced several book chapters, and is a reviewer for two journals. She is currently performing research on the role of lipoaspirate stem cells in the treatment of diabetic and venous stasis wounds.

Samir Mardini, M.D., is currently professor of surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is also program director for plastic surgery and a consultant in the Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Mardini obtained his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia and completed his plastic surgery residency at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. After completing his residency at Georgetown, he finished his training at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital where he completed a 1-year craniofacial fellowship with Dr. Yu-Ray Chen and a 2-year fellowship in reconstructive microsurgery with Dr. Fu-Chan Wei. He remained in Taiwan for more than 5 years before joining the faculty at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Mardini has published more than 85 peer-reviewed articles, 14 book chapters, and 2 books. He is an editorial board member for Seminars in Plastic Surgery, Microsurgery, and a manuscript reviewer for Microsurgery, Surgery, and Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery journals. Dr. Mardini is a member of the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery and founding member of the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation.

Phillip G. Arnold, M.D., received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967 and began his general surgery training that same year at UNC, which was completed in 1974. His general surgery training was interrupted by 2 years in the U.S. Army. During that time he was a surgeon in a M.A.S.H. hospital as well as a brigade surgeon in the First Air Cavalry in Vietnam. He was awarded three Bronze Stars, two Air Medals, the Combat Medics Badge, as well as the Vietnamese Service Cross of the Republic of Vietnam.

His plastic surgery training was at Emory University from 1974 until 1976 with Dr. M. J. Jurkiewicz. He became a consultant on staff at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1976 and rose to the rank of professor of plastic surgery in 1987. He was chair of plastic surgery at the Mayo Clinic from 1989 until 2002. Although he retired from active surgical practice in 2007, Dr. Arnold continues as a supplemental consultant at Rochester Mayo.

He has co-authored four textbooks on reconstructive surgery and 19 book chapters. Dr. Arnold has authored 78 peer-reviewed articles, 26 instructional videotapes, and 2 films and is a contributing member in more than 20 national and international organizations. His interests in plastic surgery are reconstructive surgery of the trunk and extremities as well as aesthetic surgery.