We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jo An. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jo An below.

Jo An , appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

There were never shortcuts for me growing up. My parents were hard working and dedicated to their four children and their professions. They stressed the importance of commitment and dedication to a profession and that taught me never to waiver. I knew at 10 years old that I wanted to be a surgeon and it was just a matter of finding the right area in surgery for me during medical school. I have never looked back. It was the right career path for me without having any second thoughts. I owe this to my parents who were not medical in any capacity but they fostered drive, perseverance and grit before grit was even a thing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a fellowship trained female plastic surgeon in New York City, I specialize in aesthetic surgery of the face and body and love my profession and my patients. I work hard to create a customized plan for each of my patients and I enjoy spending time with each new patient to understand a patient’s goals for seeing me. I supplement my surgical practice with minimally invasive procedures such as lasers, light based treatments, neurotoxins, fillers and platelet rich fibrin procedures to enhance nature in a very natural and un-noticeable way. My goal is to keep my patients looking refreshed without looking “done”…subtle improvements are the key.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Training for surgery residents has changed since when I was a plastic surgery resident in the midwest with 120 work hours each week. I was the only female in my residency for several years and was told that if I were to get pregnant, it would ruin the residency for everyone else. Who says this to a young woman in training? I had to tolerate so many tirades from my chairman who routinely referred to his residents as stupid. Who says this to another human being? There were so many endless nights of call where I spent hours in the emergency room and hours in the operating room reattaching mangled hands that were caught in heavy farm equipment and many hours in the burn operating room, putting skin grafts on burn victims as Kansas City was the crystal meth capital of the world and many of those home labs explode pretty easily. Six years of plastic surgery residency were crazy hard but they were also crazy amazing. Many great friendships were formed during those years.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My patients understand and appreciate my honesty and my integrity. I believe that these character traits are valued by my patients and my colleagues. I am not one to up-sell a procedure or something that is not needed in the name of making a quick sale. I’m conservative with new technology as I need to see long term data and need to know that a new technology will not cause harm in the long-run. The majority of my practice is filled with long-term patients who appreciate my ability to stay current but my honesty is also very appreciated. I am very lucky to have patients who appreciate these qualities of mine as I’m not compromising my reputation for a fad.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drjoanmonaco.com
• Instagram: @DrJoAnMonaco_NYC and @MonacoPlasticSurgery_NYC
• Linkedin: Dr JoAn Monaco MD MS