Dr. Jessica Marie Vavra, M.D., has been chosen to complete fellowship training specializing in reconstruction and plastic surgery at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. She will soon relocate there to begin her three-year fellowship program.

Currently, Vavra is serving as a chief resident physician completing her five-year residency program in general surgery. She is employed at St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit, Mich. She was recently notified of her selection as the Anthony B. Chambers Award winner as the Chief Surgical Resident of the Year. She received her award during graduation ceremonies on June 12.

Vavra is a 2005 graduate of St. John Central High School, where she was a class valedictorian. In 2009, she graduated with high honors from the Honors College at the University of Akron with degrees in biology and chemistry. In 2013, she received her medical degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

She credits St. John Central science teacher Daniel Vitlip for her interest and competency in the sciences. An externship with local physician Dr. Robert L. Cross, M.D., sparked her interest in general surgery.

During medical school, Vavra, who is fluent in the Spanish language, traveled with American physicians on mission trips to the countries in Central and South America. While there, she trained in reconstructive and plastic surgery, treating trauma victims and infants and children born with birth defects.

In Detroit, she has had the opportunity to train in and perform the most complex of surgeries with surgeons famous throughout this country. She is a member of several surgical associations, has presented research at many conferences and has published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation as well as the American Journal of Surgery.

Vavra is the daughter of Belmont County Common Pleas Judge John and Joan Vavra of St. Clairsville.