Convergences in Reconstructive Surgery and Costume Making

Dr. Jennifer Letitia has a background as a hand surgeon and plastic and reconstructive surgeon, and presently consults with Miami-based Genetic Networks, Inc. Respected in her professional community, Dr. Jennifer Letitia presented at TED in Long Beach, California and then again at TEDxWoodsHole on "Reconstructing Creativity.”

In the talk, Dr. Letitia spoke about leaving her medical practice and shifting to the business and publishing world. This left a creative side of her unfulfilled and she began making costumes for her children in ways that put her reconstructive and plastic surgery skills to use.

As a first project, she applied felt to foam sheeting in making a candy corn Halloween costume for her daughter. This was similar to the way in which skin is harvested and reapplied in different parts of the body through skin grafting. Just as in the clinical office, she required specialized equipment to attach clothing, with Gorilla Glue the preferred material for adhering synthetic bones to a skeleton Halloween costume.

In a similar way to which staples are used in facelifts and knee reconstructions, staples, Gorilla Glue, and duct tape provided the perfect material for creating from a cardboard box a car Halloween costume that would keep its form and stay red and convertible. Structural support is another key aspect in both disciplines, with a costume of the Zoltar fortune telling machine requiring a functioning booth that had flashing lights and allowed money to go in and fortunes to come out.

Woods Hole Lab Heads Efforts to Understand Coastal Ecosystem Change

As a physician and business executive, Dr. Jennifer Letitia has held many roles throughout her extensive career. Continuing to explore new avenues, she is in the process of obtaining a certificate in functional and integrative medicine. Dr. Jennifer Letitia also brings her scientific and business acumen and concern for the environment to her position as a member of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Council. The lab brings together scientists from across the world to study the unique biology of the Massachusetts coast. 

Because of its coastal location, the MBL is well-placed to observe and research the effects of environmental change. Coastal areas are changing rapidly due to habitat destruction, declining water quality, the proliferation of non-native species, and other factors. Global increases in ocean temperature and changes in chemistry caused by higher levels of carbon dioxide have also had an impact. 

Preserving coastal ecosystems will depend on understanding these changes and responding appropriately, and the MBL is poised to contribute to that effort. The laboratory is working to analyze and synthesize environmental shifts using a holistic approach to examine the ecological, evolutionary, and functional effects of rapid change. Through the use of genetics, physiology, mathematical modeling, and other scientific tools and disciplines, the MBL hopes to bring some understanding to this difficult problem.

Citizen Scientists Provide Critical Water Data

Over the course of her diverse career, Dr. Jennifer Letitia has served as the executive director of an educational nonprofit and ran her own plastic and reconstructive surgery and hand surgery practice. Currently, she is working toward a certification in functional and integrative medicine. In her spare time, Dr. Jennifer Letitia is involved in many efforts to preserve and study the environment in her local area, the Massachusetts coast, through her work with groups such as the Buzzards Bay Coalition.

The Buzzards Bay Coalition works to improve the land and water of the bay ecosystem through research, education, conservation, and advocacy. The organization accomplishes this via initiatives such as the award-winning Baywatchers program, which coordinates the efforts of citizen scientists who volunteer to monitor the health of the Buzzards Bay ecosystem.

The program began in 1992, and more than 1,000 area residents have volunteered to collect water health data. During the summer, volunteers spend one morning a week collecting and testing water samples to measure temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and water clarity, and note general weather conditions. Creating a clearer picture of the health of Buzzards Bay, this data helps the coalition and local policy makers understand and identify region-wide pollution problems.