ASPS Special Achievement Award: Giving back to the specialty

By Jim Leonardo

Foad Nahai, MD, is a prime example of taking “the road less traveled” en route to a distinguished career in the specialty. After spending his early years in Tehran, Iran, Dr. Nahai left the country in 1957 to attend boarding school in Canterbury, England, and he remained in the United Kingdom for medical training. He arrived in the United States in 1970, and after two years at Johns Hopkins, he completed general and plastic surgery residencies and a Fellowship at Emory University, Atlanta.

Dr. Nahai’s colleagues say that his accomplishments – and the way he’s achieved the various successes throughout his career – made him an ideal recipient of the ASPS Special Achievement Award, which he received during Plastic Surgery The Meeting 2020.

“Dr. Nahai epitomizes everything the award was created for,” says ASPS past President Jeffrey Janis, MD. “The award reads ‘For an outstanding physician who has brought credit and distinction to plastic surgery through clinical practice and application, community and civic accomplishments, organization and executive performance, or teaching and research.’ One would think the award was created personally for Dr. Nahai – with a picture of him next to it. It’s hard to think of anyone more deserving of the ASPS Special Achievement Award than him.”

ASPS Trustee James Grotting, MD, who bestowed the award to Dr. Nahai, agrees.

“I can think of no one who’s been more of an international ambassador for plastic surgery, developing friendships and relationships with plastic surgeons all over the globe,” Dr. Grotting said during the awards ceremony. “Dr. Nahai brought the world of plastic surgery closer together through the bridges he’s built between our specialty and other disciplines. He’s a champion of diversity in the specialty, and innovator and educator par excellence.”

An unexpected honor

Dr. Nahai says he was touched that his colleagues chose him for the award, but it was unexpected.

“Receiving this award was surprising, special and important to me because while in my early days I was very much involved in ASPS and The PSF, but later in my career my leadership and editorship of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal were all related to a sister society,” he tells PSN. “It speaks very highly and says so much about ASPS and the Board of Trustees that they’d honor me this way.”

Dr. Nahai earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree at the University of Bristol (United Kingdom), and he competed a medical and surgical internship at United Bristol Hospitals prior to emigrating to the United States. In addition to serving as the Aesthetic Surgery Journal editor, Dr. Nahai was the first Maurice J. Jurkiewicz chair in plastic surgery and professor of surgery at Emory University, and he’s served as president of the Aesthetic Society, American Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical Facilities and International Society of Plastic Surgery, as well as chairman of the Plastic Surgery Research Council. Over the course of his career, Dr. Nahai has edited or co-edited 12 textbooks and published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles on aesthetic and reconstructive surgery.

His adaptability and belief in himself began after he somewhat reluctantly left a comfortable life in Iran built by his father, an insurance executive, and found himself at St. Edmunds School, United Kingdom, at age 12.

“Once I got over the initial shock and disruptive change of leaving a reasonably well-off family to go to a boarding school in England, I loved it – and I don’t regret one minute of it,” he says. “I learned self-discipline, what commitment means and that if I start something I’m going to finish it. I learned that failure is not fatal, although to this day I do have fear of failure. I learned to persevere – and that the good that happens to me is a consequence of my own behavior and choices, and if anything unfavorable happens, that’s equally a result of my own behavior and choices.”

Acknowledging his commitment

Dr. Nahai says he’d prefer to be known as a mentor, educator and leader as much as anything else, qualities for which he feels were highlighted at Plastic Surgery The Meeting.

“I believe I’ve been recognized for my commitment to education and to training the next generation of plastic surgeons,” he says. “I’d also like to think I’ve been able to do this not just by teaching them, but also by example – by my deeds as well as my spoken or written words.

“The second reason for the award may be the modest contributions I’ve made to the evolution and advancement of reconstructive surgery through general research, anatomical research and innovation, dating back to my early days as resident at Emory,” Dr. Nahai adds. “I had worked with leaders such as Stephen Mathes, MD; John Bostwick, MD; John McCraw, MD; Louis Vasconez, MD; and we jointly contributed to the establishment, understanding and role of muscle and musculocutaneous flaps in reconstructive surgery.”

Dr. Nahai also notes that his leadership roles fortified his reputation among his colleagues.

“I’ve had the privilege of being a past president of The Aesthetic Society and the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery,” he says. “Very early in my career, I also served as chairman of the Plastic Surgery Research Council. I think I was honored because of my commitment to teaching, my scholarly work and, I flatter myself by saying, my ‘service to the specialty.’ ”

Renato Saltz, MD, past president of the Aesthetic Society and ISAPS, worked closely with Dr. Nahai at both societies and has enjoyed a friendship with him for more than 20 years. Dr. Saltz is quick to say that Dr. Nahai’s leadership of various organizations has helped unify many areas of the plastic surgery world.

“Foad is a dear friend and a great husband, father and amazing mentor,” Dr. Saltz says. “He’s a brilliant surgeon and teacher who advanced the specialty through his many publications, presentations and leadership roles at many societies and organizations, especially at ASAPS and ISAPS. His leadership and tireless enthusiasm for patient safety has made aesthetic surgery better and safer – not only in this country but worldwide. When I think of ‘servant leadership,’ I can’t think of anyone else who has done more for our specialty than Foad Nahai.”

Still, Dr. Nahai is also quick to share credit for the recognition he’s received.

“I strive to be humble,” he says. “That comes from my parents and early upbringing, and I’ve also had several years in English boarding schools where being humble is preferred to showing off, being self-centered or self-promoting. It’s just part of me and it’ll never change – and I’d like to think I’ve imparted some of that on my children and on my grandchildren.”

His penchant for delivering the lessons that others would want to follow extends toward his plastic surgery charges, for whom he relished being a mentor.

“A good mentor is someone who takes an interest, leads by example and allows you to develop yourself and be yourself,” Dr. Nahai says. “A great mentor brings out the best in their mentee, but not encouraging the mentee to end up being just like the mentor. Sometimes that’s a huge challenge; in my early days I tried not to think that I wanted to be like Dr. X, Dr. Y or Dr. Z. Rather, I would see what inspires me and then take some from each of them – but then be myself while benefitting from my exposure to them and from what I felt were their strong points and the characteristics that I would like to emulate.”

In other words, Dr. Nahai says a young surgeon should consider applying the bedside manner of one doctor, the precision of another and the scholarly acumen of another.

“I like to think of myself as someone who likes to teach, and I’m always flattered when somebody I’ve trained, who has read my books or heard me lecture, refers to me as a mentor,” he says. “I flatter myself to think that I’ve been a mentor to many. In fact, I’ve been involved in training about 110 Emory residents in plastic surgery and another 40 Fellows in aesthetic surgery.”

However, he politely declined to name his most impactful mentor, choosing instead to reveal that when he delivers the prestigious Trustees Talk titled “Where Would I Be Without My Mentors?” during Plastic Surgery The Meeting in Atlanta.

“I’ve had several great mentors and one in particular wasn’t a plastic surgeon – he was a professor of medicine and he had the greatest influence on my career and me,” Dr. Nahai says. “I was fortunate, in that I was born on one continent, grew up in a second and established my career in a third, and on each continent I had a role model. But as far as the most impactful, I’ll reveal all of that during my Trustees Talk on Oct. 30.”