ACS AWARDS DR. FRANCISCA TOLETE-VELCEK MEMBERSHIP IN THE ACADEMY OF MASTER SURGEON EDUCATORS
Dr. Francisca Tolete-Velcek was admitted to the membership of the American College of Surgeons’ Academy of Master Surgeon Educators on July 29, 2021 and will be inducted at the induction ceremony on October 15, 2021. It’s another honor that Dr. Velcek, one of the past Presidents of Society of Philippine Surgeons in America (SPSA)1993, has added to an already impressive resume.
Born and raised in Ilocos Sur, Philippines, Dr. Francisca Agatep Tolete-Velcek went to the University of the Philippines (UP) and obtained her Medical Degree, graduating in 1966. She came to the US to pursue her General Surgical training at St. Clare’s Hospital from 1966-1971 under the tutelage of the pioneering surgeon Dr. John Madden. She went to SUNY Downstate Medical Center for her Residency and Fellowship in Pediatric Surgery under Dr. Peter Kottmeier after which she joined the surgical faculty and rose to the rank of Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and subsequently becoming the Director of the Division of Pediatric Surgery.
Dr. Velcek is certified by the American Board of Surgery in General and Pediatric Surgery and Surgical Critical Care. She holds concurrent appointments as an Attending Surgeon or Chief of Pediatric Surgery at multiple medical centers in New York, she also serves as a Consulting Surgeon at several hospitals in New Jersey and New York as well as at the KLAICEVA National Children’s Hospital in Zagreb, Croatia and as a Visiting Professor at the UP College of Medicine and Visiting Surgeon at the UP-PGH Medical Center.
Her many awards include the Warren Wetzel Award for Excellence in Teaching from SUNY Downstate Medical Center, the Sergio Award from Healing the Children Foundation, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UP Medical Alumni Society in America (UPMASA) in 2010, the Philippine Presidential Pamana ng Pilipino Award in 2012, the SUNY Downstate Medical Center Presidential Award for Committment to Excellence in Graduate Medical Education in 2017, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UP Medical Alumni Society in 2017, and the University of the Philippines Alumni Association Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award in 2018. She was inducted to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2020. She is also a Member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem as Dame Commander with Star.
Dr. Velcek has published 53 scientific articles in national and international peer-reviewed medical and surgical journals. She has delivered 186 lectures in national and international meetings.
As chair of the medical missions committee of UP Medical Society in America (UPMASA), she has led medical-surgical missions to various areas of the Philippines. She has also participated in multiple missions with SPSA in the Philippines and has also worked in many missions in Eastern Europe and South America.
She served as a Lt. Col. in the US Army Reserved Medical Corps and was mobilized to Operation Desert Storm at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and received the Distinguished US Army Service Medal in 1991.
Dr. Francisca Tolete Velcek
