About Us

Brian K. Rubinstein, M.D. Director
Faces of Tomorrow founder and President, Dr. Brian Rubinstein is a board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. He is also Chief of Pediatric Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento, CA. In addition, he is the assistant director of the Northern California Regional Craniofacial panel for Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Rubinstein has traveled to Ecuador on four missions and served more than 150 children with facial deformities including cleft lip, cleft palate and ear deformities. The birth of this organization is a long-realized dream for this compassionate physician.
http://www.permanente.net/homepage/doctor/brianrubinstein/

Nima Pahlavan
Dr. Pahlavan is one of the founding members of Faces of Tomorrow. He is a board certified head and neck surgeon and dentist. He initially obtained his dental degree from the University of Pacific. While there, he became fascinated with many head and neck disease entities including treating patients with craniofacial disorders. This motivated him to pursue further training as a medical doctor. He then attended medical school at Tulane University and performed his residency in head and neck surgery at University of California, Davis. He has been a staff head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento since 2003. He is a member of the Craniofacial Panel at Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento. He has traveled to Ecuador in the past as part of a surgical mission to treat patients with cleft lip, cleft palate, and ear anomalies.
More info: kp.org/mydoctor/nimapahlavan

Charles Shih, M.D.
Dr. Charles Shih is currently practicing at Kaiser Oakland Medical Center and is chief of the Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He serves as clinical attending faculty for the Oakland Kaiser Head and Neck Surgery residency program. Dr. Shih is a native of Illinois and received his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He went on to receive his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York. His internship year in General Surgery, as well as four more years of specialty training in Otolaryngology / Head and Neck Surgery, were completed at the University of Southern California - Los Angeles County Medical Center. He subsequently completed a fellowship in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of California - Davis in Sacramento. He is Board Certified in both Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Otolaryngology. Dr. Shih regularly volunteers his time on surgical mission trips performing surgery for children with facial deformities.

Travis Tollefson, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Travis Tollefson is a board certified otolaryngologist and facial plastic surgeon. He is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis in the department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He completed his fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at UC Davis Medical Center in 2004 and started his position as a faculty member thereafter. Dr. Tollefson has an interest in studying facial deformities found at birth, such as cleft lip and palate, microtia (absent ears), and craniosynostosis. He is an active team member of the Cleft and Craniofacial Team at UC Davis Medical Center and is an Associate Medical Director of Operation of Hope. He travels to Africa and Ecuador on mission trips through Operation of Hope yearly to volunteer his services and time to perform surgeries on children and adults with facial deformities such as cleft lip and/or palate. His research interests centers on the belief that translational research linking basic science to the discovery of clinical use is very important. He is currently involved in a research project studying the use of an artificial muscle for patients with facial paralysis. This research project propelled him to be awarded the 2007 AAFPRS Bernstein Grant. More info: http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/otolaryngology/ourteam/
faculty/tollefson.html

Craig W. Senders, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Senders is an expert in pediatric otolaryngology; cleft lip and cleft palate, endoscopic sinus surgery, and surgery for sleep apnea at UC Davis. Dr. Senders is the Director of the University of California, Davis Cleft and Craniofacial Program. Presently, 75% of Dr. Craig Senders' practice is pediatrics. This ranges from treatment of otitis media with effusion to airway disorders requiring complex reconstructive surgeries. Many of these pediatric patients have congenital anomalies of the head and neck, mostly consisting of cleft lip and cleft palate.
More Info:
Director of Otolaryngology Residency Program
Director of Cleft and Craniofacial Program

Melvin W. Walters, DDS
Dr. Walters is an experienced orthodontist with over 45 years of clinical practice. His undergraduate degree and dental degree were earned from the University of Minnesota. He served his rotating dental internship at the Naval Hospital, Great Lakes, IL prior to serving 2 years aboard the aircraft carrier Hornet. He received his orthodontic specialty training from the University of Washington in Seattle, School of Dentistry. Dr. Walters has been a passionate international volunteer for Cleft Lip / Palate Health Care Team Member since 2003. He has participated in foundation work in Ecuador; serving the needs of children who were born with facial deformities. He has made and provided several hundred removable intraoral appliances to children born with open palates. The majority of these appliances were designed to obturate oral-nasal fistula to aid in eating and drinking. These appliances included orthodontic auxiliary wires to reduce the severity of the tooth alignment and skeletal misalignment. He has also designed over-dentures for adults with repaired bilateral clefts and severe mid-face deficiencies in an effort to improve function and facial esthetics. More info: www.waltersortho.com

Amir Rafii
Amir graduated in 1994 from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelors degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. He also earned a Masters in Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown University. In 2001, he received his Doctor of Medicine from Georgetown University's School of Medicine. He completed his surgical internship and residency in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, Davis. Amir is excited to be back in the bay area after completing a fellowship in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Seattle. He is currently working for Kaiser Permanente Hospital in San Francisco. Amir has participated in several international surgical humanitarian programs (to Ecuador and China), and has a special interest in cleft lip and palate surgery. More info:
http://www.kaiserdavis.org/homepage/kaiser/doctor/amirrafii/
CV

Kristen Kanerva Richards RN
Kristen is a Family Nurse Practitioner student at University of California, San Francisco and a board member of Faces of Tomorrow. She works at a bilingual family practice clinic in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco and the maternal child health department at Marin General Hospital. Her experience includes 10 years of international travel and medical missions around the world. In addition, she served has a health Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador (2001-2003) where she lived and worked in a rural community in the Amazon Basin. She is fluent in Spanish and dedicated to the Latino community in the United States and abroad.

Charlotte J. Lucero - Secretary
Charlotte Lucero is a native Yolo County resident, born and raised in Woodland, California, and lives in Davis, California. She is a graduate from the University of California, Davis with a focus on Women Studies and an emphasis in Ethnic Studies. She is a Returning Peace Corps Volunteer (RPVC). She has five grown children and eleven grand-children. She has participated in three medical missions as a social worker, interpreter, and lay minister. She gives credit to Peace Corps for the incredible opportunity of working in one of the poorest countries in the world; as well as being invited as a Spanish interpreter for a medical brigade for the opportunity of working with children born with cleft lip/palates. Upon retiring from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine in 2002; she became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador committing two years to global service and advocating education and improved heath care for children from the poorest of families. Her passion of education continues here at home as well as abroad. She is a board member of Faces of Tomorrow/Rostros del Ma'ana; she is involved with Global Scholarship Fund for young women around the world. An organization founded by a Retuning Peace Corps Volunteer Maureen Daniel's and colleague (globalscholarshipfund.blogspot.com); as well as sponsors a small school in Puembo, Ecuador that concentrates their efforts and education to children who are autistic.

Jim Thompson - Chief Financial Officer
Jim Thompson has 17 years of public and private company experience, and has provided senior financial consulting for several startup companies over the past ten years. Currently, Jim serves as CFO of Fuego Nation (San Francisco), an innovative social networking start-up, and Gold Standard Diagnostics (Davis, Ca.), a value added distributor of medical diagnostic products. Prior to that,Jim served as Chief Financial Officer at Air Media, Inc., a software and solutions provider for mobile phone applications, which was sold to AOL. Jim has consulted for several high technology startups, including iGames, Veroscan, Inc., the Kingfish Group, and Electron Economy. He served asUS Director of Finance and Operations for publicly tradedMadge Networks (UK), and has also held finance positions at Frame Technology/Adobe Systems, and Radius, Inc.

Education and Information:

About Us