About Us

Our History

In 2011, a group of physicians, nurses, surgical technicians, and clinical volunteers from Dell Children’s Medical Center decided to start organizing surgical mission trips to help children gain access to health care regardless of location or funding. We partnered with the Shalom Foundation, a non-profit organization, who had built a pediatric surgery center in Guatemala City. In December of 2012, our group embarked on our first trip to the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center in Guatemala.  After helping 60 children with a variety of general surgical and urologic problems, we were committed to building the strongest organization possible to continue our work year after year.

Since our First Trip

We have expanded to include as many surgical specialties as possible including Orthopedics, Plastic Surgery, General Surgery, Otolaryngology, and Urology. We have partnered with the pre-medical student organization at the University of Texas Austin (AED), who continues to fundraise and volunteer alongside us on mission trips. We have also built a strong community of medical professionals in Guatemala City, including surgeons and primary care physicians to make sure that the children we treat have access to the surgical care they need and ongoing care for themselves and their communities even after we leave.

As our ranks grew we established a relationship with the Austin Community Foundation and continue to exist as a 501c tax-exempt organization. In 2019 , we rebranded our group as Operation KidDocs and have continued to grow our web presence and fundraising efforts.

Where we are now

Working with the staff of the Moore Center, we have developed a first class surgical center in this underserved region. The educational activities we provide to local physicians, students, and health care providers is helping to build a more sustainable healthcare system. While the bulk of our work has been at the Moore Center, OKD continues to explore other opportunities in other countries to help with the surgical care of children. We are proud to continue our work completing two medical mission trips each year, donating approximately 150-200 surgeries annually to children who need our help.

Why Is This Work Important?

Increasingly it is being recognized that surgical disease is a huge unmet need in the developing world. The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery reported that 28–32% of the global burden of disease can be attributed to surgically treatable conditions (1). A Bulletin from the World Health Organization noted that in some low and middle income countries that an estimated 85% of children will have a surgically treatable disease by the age of 15 years old (2). While broad programs aimed at medical diseases have been undertaken, little attention has been paid to the totality of surgical problems in vulnerable populations.

A 2015 synopsis of Disease Control Priorities published by the World Bank (3) found that the provision of essential surgical services could avert 1.5 million deaths per year and that these surgical procedures are among the most cost-effective health interventions possible. While a medical intervention such as treatment with a medication helps only as long as the patient continues to take the medicine, a surgical intervention fixes a problem forever.

When you can provide an essential surgery for a child, you have changed that child’s entire life for the better. For instance, the most common cause of adult bowel obstruction in the developing world is an incarcerated hernia. If you can fix that hernia when the patient is a child, you have prevented him from a lifetime of pain, suffering, and a potentially lethal obstructive episode, requiring emergency surgery. When researchers look at the lifetime impact of having a hernia (Disability Averted Lifetime Years, DALY), they find that repairing that hernia is one of the most cost-effective interventions of any medical or surgical treatment (3).

Many organizations are working to help developing nations to build the infrastructure necessary to help with these problems and OKD is in support of all these efforts. However, in the meantime, there are a lot of children in Guatemala and other countries that need surgical care now. One may reasonably ask, what effect can a small group of doctors and nurses have on the enormity of this worldwide problem.

For the more than 750 children that we have helped in Guatemala and the thousands we hope to care for in the future, they would say we can have a big impact.

  1. Meara J.G., Leather A.J.M., Hagander L., Alkire B.C., Alonso N., Ameh E.A., Bickler S.W., Conteh L., Dare A.J., Davies J., et al. Global Surgery 2030: Evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development. Lancet. 2015;386:569–624. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60160-X. [PubMed] [Cross Ref]
  2. Bickler SW, Rode H. Surgical services for children in developing countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2002;80(10):829–35. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
  3. Essential Surgery. Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 1).Editors: Haile T Debas, Peter Donkor, Atul Gawande, Dean T Jamison, Margaret E Kruk, and Charles N Mock. Washington (DC): The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2015 Apr 2. ISBN-13: 978-1-4648-0346-8ISBN-13: 978-1-4648-0367-3

Our Board

Kent Jones, MD

President

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Dr. Jones is an otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, and Throat) who practices at Austin Regional Clinic.  He sees adult and pediatric patients, with a particular interest in obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Jones grew up in Jacksonville, Illinois.  He majored in biology as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, graduating with honors in 1985.  He attended medical school at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, graduating in 1989.  Graduate medical training in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery was also done at Northwestern, completing his residency in 1994.

Dr. Jones initially went into practice in general otolaryngology in Yakima, Washington.  In 1998 he moved with his family to Austin, Texas, joining Austin Regional Clinic.  Dr. Jones is currently the chief of the Ear, Nose, and Throat Department at Austin Regional Clinic. He joined the board of Operation Kid Doc in 2017.

Megan Roberts, PA-C

Vice President, Spring Trip Coordinator

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Megan Roberts was born and raised in Austin, Texas. After earning a degree in Nutritional Sciences from Texas A&M, she studied at UT Health in San Antonio to earn her PA License. During her education she served as a volunteer, then a student leader, of the San Antonio Refugee Health Clinic. Her career started in Emergency Medicine at a Level 1 Trauma center in San Antonio, University Hospital. She joined the Central Texas Pediatric Orthopedic practice in 2017 where she still treats pediatric trauma patients at Dell Children’s Medical Center. Megan is grateful for an opportunity to serve Operation Kid Docs and joined the board in 2019.

Tory Meyer, MD

Co-Founder and Treasurer

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Dr. Tory Meyer is a Pediatric Surgeon with Austin Pediatric Surgery specializing in the care of neonatal and pediatric patients. He grew up in Chappaqua, New York, attended Yale and Columbia University and has lived in Austin, TX since 2000. He has served previously as the Surgery Department Chair, the Chief of Staff and the Chairman of the Pediatric Leadership Board at Dell Children’s Medical Center. He has also been on the Board, and former President, of the Hill Country Conservancy and is a present Board Member of Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center, dedicated to getting children out into nature.  Dr. Meyer has been with OKD since its inception and feels honored to be able to help take care of these deserving children. In addition to spending time with his wife and kids, Dr. Meyer brews beer, mountain bikes, and flies a paramotor. 

Jordan Tarter, PharmD

Secretary

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Jordan is a pharmacist practicing in Austin, TX. She earned her PharmD at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, with a concentration in Missions & Public Health. Nashville is where she first got involved with the Shalom Foundation and the Moore Center. Belmont has a special relationship with the Moore Center and was integral in creating its pharmacy, which is nicknamed “La Belmont Farmacia”. Her time in Guatemala has changed her life and helped shape her career. She has been on multiple trips to the Moore Center since 2013 and looks forward to many more! 

John Williams, MD

Past President

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Dr. John Williams, MD is a pediatric orthopedic specialist and currently serves as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Central Texas Pediatric Orthopedics in Austin, TX. As a graduate of Dartmouth-Brown Medical School, he has been practicing for over 30 years and specializes in general pediatric orthopedics, pediatric spine disorders, and congenital abnormalities. 

He has previously served as the Chief of Orthopedic Trauma at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and currently serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Dell Medical School’s Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) as well as a Member of the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America (POSNA).

Portrait of George Seremetis

George Seremetis, MD

Co-Founder and Past President

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Dr. Seremetis was born in New York City  & grew up in Greece, France, NYC, & Washington DC. He attended college at Brandeis U & competed in fencing. He received an MS & MD from Georgetown University then did a General Surgery & Urology Residency at Dartmouth & Pediatric Urology fellowship at Northwestern U. He took a year off while at Dartmouth & worked at an Afghan refugee center in Pakistan (1988-1989) and has been working in Austin since 1995. Dr. Seremetis has been head of the Pediatric Ethics Committee, the Chief of the Surgery Council, & the Chief of Staff at Dell Children’s Medical Center over the past 2 decades! He has been on a mission trip to Kenya & on 7 trips to Guatemala and was one of the founding members of OKD.

Larry Shannon, RN

Board Member

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Larry Shannon is a RN with experience as a circulator and scrub tech. Although retired he works part time at a local hospital because he enjoys working in surgery with other dedicated nurses, scrubs, surgeons and anesthesia folks. The majority of his nursing career has been in pediatric surgery. He has been on mission trips to Haiti and Guatemala with other organizations. Larry is thrilled to be with OKD helping to make lives better for the children of Guatemala.

Portrait of Stanford Young

Stanford Young, MD

Board Member

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Stanford Young MD is an affiliate faculty member for the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care at Dell Medical School and a partner at US Anesthesia Partners.  He earned his M.D. from Texas Tech University School of Medicine. After completing his residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, he completed his pediatric anesthesia fellowship at George Washington University’s Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.  Now, he is a member of multiple medical organizations including the Travis County Medical Society, the American and Texas Medical Associations and the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia.  Dr Young is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology.  Areas of interest include medical information technologies and data management.  He has participated in multiple medical mission trips in many parts of the world.  He is proud to be a member of Operation Kid Docs which is the latest greatest non-profit organization from Austin fulfilling the surgical needs of kids in developing countries.

Rachel Parrish, RN

Board Member

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Rachel is a registered nurse who grew up in Southeast Texas. She has been a nurse for 27 years and has worked in various aspects of nursing over her career. Over the last 12 years she has been an OR nurse at a pediatric surgery center in Austin. Her passion is working with children and especially those who are less fortunate. Rachel has also started her own  jewelry business and has donated a portion of her profits to OKD. Her hobbies include traveling,reading, and shopping. 

Dan Ernst, MSN, CRNA

Board Member

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I have helped our organization evolve from a very small dedicated group called Dell Children’s Surgical Global Outreach (DCSGO) to the now high functioning Operation KidDocs.  My role as a Board Member is to assemble Anesthesia Teams to deliver the same complex anesthesia care as we provide here at home in Austin. I am currently the Chief Pediatric Anesthetist at Dell Children’s Medical Center and USAP Anesthesia in Austin. My continued mission is to maintain the support of our dedicated Anesthesiologists and Nurse Anesthetists as we further share our skills and continue the journey for all of the children for whom we care. “Love only grows by sharing.  You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.” *Brian Tracy

Portrait of Leilani Briseno

Leilani Briseno

Board Member, Fall Trip Coordinator

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Leilani is a Surgical Tech specializing in pediatrics.  She is grateful and honored to give back by volunteering for countless international surgical mission trips both with Operation Kid Docs and Austin Smiles.  As a Board Member, her goal is to bring first world surgical care to the developing countries. She is proud to volunteer alongside a group of dedicated volunteers coming out of her hometown of Austin, as well as other cities within Texas.  In her spare time, Leilani loves to drive the countryside and take photos of the beautiful Texas Hill Country.

Lindsay Rogers, RN

Board Member

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Lindsay Rogers has volunteered with Operation KidDocs since 2019. She joined the group while working as a circulating nurse at Dell Children’s Medical Center. She now works as a traveling nurse, supporting operating rooms around the country. This makes her especially well suited to our mission, she is able to set up an OR and coordinate a team anywhere in the world. No matter how much she travels, she always manages to find her way home. We are so grateful to see her on our missions year after year. In addition to volunteering on missions, Lindsay has served as a board member since 2019. She recruits volunteers, coordinates board business, and supports the fundraising committee.

Lindsay is committed to providing the highest quality surgical care to any child, anywhere. She’s not only excellent at her job, she’s the kind of person who shows up. She shows up for her team and she shows up for her patients.

Christine Levy, MD

Board Member

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Echo Rowles, CSFA, CST

Board Member

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Echo is a Certified Surgical First Assistant and Certified Surgical Technologist with 25 years of medical experience.  She made her first trip with OKD in January.  Echo has extensive experience on medical mission trips, with more than 25 trips to date.  She joined our board with a lot of experience. She previously helped to establish an organization called “Milagros para Ninos” that also provides overseas surgical services to children.

Michele M Haddock, ST, CSFA

Board Member

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Michele is a Certified Surgical First Assistant and Certified Surgical Technologist with 24 years of experience.  Michele has been volunteering on our missions since 2022. She has been extremely helpful in our efforts to better organize instruments and materials, and continues to help with that behind the scenes.  She has also helped with the organization of the anesthesia supplies.  She has become one of our key resources in these areas.     She has a wide range of OR skills and experience.  She is a hard worker, knowledgeable, and has been a great asset on every trip.

Sheri Valencia, RN, NP

Board Member

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Sheri Valencia is a native Californian who settled in the great state of Texas in 2009. She has called California, Texas, and Illinois home over the years. Sheri earned her associates degree in nursing at Palomar College, her Bachelors in Nursing at UT Arlington and her Masters as a Family Nurse Practitioner at Maryville University.  When Sheri moved to the Austin area she continued her passion for surgery at Dell Children’s Medical Center, with experience in adults, critical care, pediatrics, hospice and cardiac care. Starting in 2012 she went on her first mission trip to Guatemala with Dell Children’s Surgical Global Outreach (now OKD) and has never looked back. She has a passion to work with the underserved and underprivileged and finds it very rewarding.  Currently Sheri splits her time between Dell Children’s Medical Center and working locally as a Nurse Practitioner. Sheri spends her free time with her husband Marc and their two daughters Kayla and Krista.

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