Getting to Know: Ana Tobón
AO CMF faculty member and web editorial group member Ana Catalina Tobón Trujillo was the first woman in a decade to graduate from her university’s craniomaxillofacial program.
Where are you now?
I live and practice surgery in Medellín, Colombia. I work as the coordinator/head of departments of maxillofacial surgery of four hospitals/clinics in the state of Antioquia: North Clinical Foundation in Bello, Saint Rafael Hospital Itagui, Panamericana Clinics in Apartado and Saint John of God in La Ceja. I am also a professor assigned to postgraduates in oral and maxillofacial surgery at CES University in Medellín.
What do these roles mean to you?
For me, working as a professor and chief/coordinator of the oral and maxillofacial departments at four hospitals has been such a challenge. It demands so much preparation to, as a woman, be perceived as competent in the field. I am responsible for shaping not only good surgeons but good people who have compassion for people who are suffering. I have the responsibility of learning more every day so that I can inspire my peers and students.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I graduated as a dentist in 2001 from CES University in Medellín; during the last year of my dental studies, I was selected for exchange program in Gothenburg, Sweden. Subsequently, in 2007, I was a graduate pioneer as the first female maxillofacial surgeon at the University of CES which for the previous ten years had graduated only males! Since then, many other women have successfully completed their postgraduate studies at the university. I am currently finishing my master’s thesis—focusing on the issue of face transplants, which currently are not permitted in Colombia—in bioethics.
What inspired you to become a surgeon?
I always wanted to do something that would help people and, as I was growing up, I found that I had good manual dexterity. When I was studying dentistry, I met two surgeon professors who inspired me to go in the direction of surgery, and I was fortunate to meet several surgeon professors who allowed me to accompany them in their work. It was there that I discovered that I wanted to do something bigger: Operate on faces! I fell in love with CMF from the beginning, and I still feel that passion today!
“For me AO CMF is an additional family that gave me life! The foundation opened the doors to a world without limits! It has helped me to improve my practice every day, it has taught me to be a teacher of new generations and it gives me access to a family of like-minded surgeons for advance.”
Dr Ana Catalina Tobón Trujillo lives, practices, and teaches surgery Medellín, Colombia. She graduated as a dentist from CES University in Medellín, in 2001, having earned academic honors during her undergraduate studies. In 2001, during her last year of dentist training, Ana was part of an exchange program in Gothenburg, Sweden, marking her entry into the world of implantology, an area that was just beginning in Colombia.
She graduated as a maxillofacial surgeon from CES University in 2007 and in 2001 earned her master’s degree in dental implants through a Sparza educational project and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. In 2012, she had an AO CMF Fellowship in the Hospital del Trabajador in Santiago, Chile. Currently, she is in the second year of master's studies in bioethics and will soon defend her thesis on facial transplants.