About

Dr. Yao is a plastic surgeon resident in Los Angeles, CA who specializes in personalized, high quality, safe patient care.

She grew up in Massachusetts and attended high school at Phillips Andover Academy, completed a Bachelors degree in economics from Princeton University and received her Medical Degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

During her training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Southern California, Dr. Yao undertook a two-year research fellowship where she completed a Masters Degree in biostatistics and worked with Operation Smile, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free cleft lip surgery to children in underserved countries.

Working with Operation Smile, Dr. Yao designed, implemented and completed several major projects to improve global healthcare delivery in Vietnam and to create better care algorithms for pediatric reconstructive surgery. Dr. Yao’s project to create a grading system for disease severity in cleft lip children won first prize at the 2016 American Association of Plastic Surgeons conference.

Her projects in barriers to surgical care in underserved countries and international surgical education have been published in the journal of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons (The Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal), and presented nationally at the Plastic Surgery Research Council and the American Public Health Association.

Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Yao worked for several years on Wall Street as an investment analyst. With her background in economics, global health and plastic surgery, she hopes to combine a clinical surgical career with educating others, and conducting well-designed, innovative medical/surgical research to improve delivery of care in the U.S. and abroad.