CLS: Dr. Meredith Workman

Are we there yet? Navigating culture, medicine, and parenting as medical missionaries in Africa

Get ready for a family-friendly, enjoyable, and often hilarious presentation as we take a journey with the Workman family. Just six months ago, they traded their suburban paradise for the African savanna. Dr. Meredith Workman, a pediatric plastic surgeon and fourth-generation Lakesider, her husband David, a Lakeside Foundation Board member, and their four children left behind a comfortable life in Arizona to become medical missionaries in Zambia with CURE International. In this engaging talk, they will share their often funny and sometimes scary adventures as they adapt to a new culture, a new medical system, and the challenges of raising children in Africa. Join us as the Workman Family takes us on a journey of faith, perseverance, and adaptation, sharing the ups and downs of their new adventure, the lessons they’ve learned, and the milestones they’ve achieved along the way.

Dr. Workman is a board-certified plastic surgeon with over ten years of surgical experience in pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery and served for four years as a director of the ACPA-approved cleft team at Children’s Rehabilitative Services in Phoenix, AZ. She has been involved in dozens of research publications and presentations. Her specialties include congenital or acquired facial deformities, cleft lip and palate, congenital hand malformations, congenital or developmental breast deformities, scars, and other lesions.

Dr. Meredith Workman has a combined Bachelor’s and Medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Medical University. She completed an integrated general surgery/plastic surgery residency at Oklahoma University Health Science Center and a Pediatric Plastic Surgery fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital through Ohio State University Medical Center.

Dr. Workman most recently sold her private practice of East Valley Pediatric Plastic Surgery, PLC, to join the medical team at CURE Zambia where she will be responsible for evaluating and treating children with plastic surgical issues, coordinating care with other specialists, and providing postoperative care and therapy recommendations.

In January, Dr. Workman, her husband David, and their four children, ages 6, 8, 12, and 14, moved from their home in Chandler, Arizona, to Lusaka, Zambia.