Leslie Kim
Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business
Age: 41
“Driven facial plastic surgeon dedicated to exceptional patient care, innovation, mentorship, and intentional leadership.”
Hometown: Syosset, NY
Family Members: Peter Lu, MD (husband and pediatric gastroenterologist), Emma (5-year-old daughter), Theodore (2-year-old son)
Fun fact about yourself: I love to travel and have been to 62 countries thus far. Because of my busy clinical schedule, many trips have been whirlwind adventures lasting three days or less. The most extreme was flying nearly 60 hours round-trip just to spend 60 “foodie” hours in Shanghai!
Undergraduate School and Degree:
– Northwestern University, Honors Program in Medical Education, B.A. in Psychology
– Northwestern University, Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)
– Northwestern University, Master of Public Health (M.P.H.)
– Ohio State University, Residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
– Johns Hopkins, Fellowship in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Where are you currently working? Clinical Professor and Director of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles: I have served as the Director of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at The Ohio State for the past ten years and currently lead a division of three surgeons, one nurse practitioner, and a fellow. From a clinical standpoint, I have been named to Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors and Exceptional Women in Medicine lists since 2022 and ranked in the top 99th percentile of physicians nationwide for patient satisfaction in 2025. As an academic surgeon, I train residents and am an American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) fellowship director. I am one of only six female directors in the country but am excited to see that number rising each year.
At the national level, I am the Senior Advisor for the AAFPRS Women in Facial Plastic Surgery committee and served as the Chair from 2022-2025. I am honored to have received the 2025 AAFPRS William Wright Award for Excellence in Mentorship and Service for my “profound and measurable impact on the future of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery- particularly in advancing opportunities, visibility, and mentorship for women in the field.” I also serve on the AAFPRS Board Nominating Committee and as an oral examiner for the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? One achievement I am particularly proud of was successfully negotiating approval for a new facial plastic surgery cosmetic center at our academic medical institution while completing my Executive MBA. The project involved aligning multiple stakeholders across departmental leadership and institutional administration around a complex strategic initiative that I have been envisioning for nearly a decade. What made this especially meaningful was being able to directly apply concepts from strategy, finance, negotiations, marketing, and organizational behavior in real time.
I am also proud of developing a medical device concept that originated during our entrepreneurship course. As part of a class assignment, we were challenged to deliver a two-minute pitch centered on a real-world pain point. I presented an idea for a medical device inspired by challenges I experience as a surgeon. What began as a classroom exercise has since evolved into a true entrepreneurial project: I have further innovated the concept, filed a provisional patent, and am currently working through the prototyping process. My MBA experience empowered me to transform a strategic idea into an actionable opportunity.
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Professionally, I am most proud of building a nationally renowned aesthetic facial plastic surgery practice within an academic medical center. Our practice has become a destination center that attracts patients from all across the country and internationally, driven by exceptional outcomes and patient experience. Equally meaningful to me has been mentoring trainees and helping create greater opportunities for women in leadership within our specialty. I am honored to have been promoted to Professor before the age of 40 in recognition of these efforts.
Who was your favorite MBA professor? It’s difficult to choose just one favorite professor, but I would say Professor Dan Oglevee. He created exceptional immersion experiences in Silicon Valley/Napa Valley and Spain. There were not only educational, but also instrumental in strengthening the relationships within our cohort. His Entrepreneurship course was particularly impactful for me, as it helped spark my medical device innovation journey. On a more personal note, he also joined several of us for one of the best meals I’ve ever had, at Disfrutar in Barcelona, which perfectly reflected the combination of culture and camaraderie that made the EMBA experience so special.
Why did you choose this school’s executive MBA program? I chose the OSU Fisher College of Business Executive MBA Program because I already worked within the university and knew it had a strong reputation for leadership development, collaboration, and experiential learning – particularly through the program’s domestic and international immersion experiences. I was also incredibly fortunate to have the sponsorship of my department in pursuing the degree, which made the opportunity even more meaningful.
What is the biggest lesson you gained during your MBA and how did you apply it at work? As a first-generation immigrant and deeply driven person, much of my life and career had been centered around personal achievement. One of the biggest lessons I gained during my MBA is that meaningful, lasting value cannot rely on any one individual alone. The MBA challenged me to think beyond individual patient encounters and toward creating broader, longer-term impact. I better appreciate that scaling value requires far more than individual excellence; it requires visionary leadership, empowering team members, aligning incentives, and building systems and cultures that can consistently perform at a high level, long after any one individual steps away.
Give us a story during your time as an executive MBA on how you were able to juggle work, family and education? I entered the Executive MBA program at a particularly demanding season of life. I was already working 60 hours per week running a mature and highly productive facial plastic surgery practice. At the same time, I was training residents and a fellow, serving in leadership roles, and lecturing nationally throughout the year. At home, I was raising two young children, including a six-month-old when the program began. Quite honestly, balancing work, motherhood, the postpartum period, and the EMBA was incredibly challenging. Most coursework happened during the only hours I had available: 4 AM mornings before the rest of the house woke up and late nights after everyone was asleep. To make things even harder, my son went through a prolonged period of very poor sleep during his first year, which meant many nights were fragmented and exhausting. Looking back, the experience taught me an extraordinary amount about resilience, discipline, and prioritization. While it was one of the most physically and emotionally demanding periods of my life, it was also one of the most rewarding and transformative.
What advice would you give to a student looking to enter an executive MBA program? Go into the program with humility and curiosity. Many Executive MBA students are already highly accomplished in their careers, but some of the greatest growth comes from being willing to challenge your existing assumptions and learn from leaders outside your own industry. I would also encourage students not to view the EMBA as something separate from their work. The real value comes from applying concepts immediately, experimenting in real time within your organization, and using the experience not only for personal growth – but also to create meaningful impact for your team and company.
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What insights did you gain from using AI? Professor Nate Craig’s Data Analytics course intentionally incorporated AI tools and applications into the curriculum. One of the most educational assignments was writing a paper that applied ideas from the books Power and Prediction and Co-Intelligence to evaluate how advanced AI could reshape my role, my organization, and the broader healthcare industry. The assignment challenged me to think about AI not simply as an automation tool, but as a “co-intelligence” partner capable of augmenting human judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking. It also pushed me to critically examine the distinction between decisions that benefit primarily from improved prediction and those that still require a “human in the loop.”
What was the main reason you chose an executive MBA program over part-time or online alternatives? I specifically chose the Executive MBA format because I wanted a highly immersive and collaborative experience with other senior professionals. After practicing as a surgeon for more than a decade, I was interested not only in developing the hard skills of business, but also in learning from experienced leaders across a wide range of industries and backgrounds. I believed the cohort-based structure and face-to-face interactions would create a much richer and more dynamic environment than an online alternative—and it did. The networking, shared experiences, and lasting relationships ultimately became some of the most valuable aspects of the program.
How did you finance your EMBA and what did you do to make tuition and associated costs more affordable? I was incredibly fortunate to have my department sponsor my Executive MBA education, and I am deeply grateful to my chair, Dr. James Rocco, as well as our administrative leadership and colleagues, for believing in the value of the experience. Their support not only made the program financially feasible, but also reflected a broader commitment to investing in physician leadership development within our department.
What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? My ultimate long-term professional goal is to create lasting impact through patient care, mentorship, innovation, and leadership. As a facial plastic surgeon, I hope to continue improving patients’ quality of life through meticulous, thoughtful care that restores both form and function while supporting confidence and identity. As an academic surgeon, I seek to train future physicians not only to pursue technical excellence, but also to lead with compassion, integrity, and humility. To me, teaching is one of the most meaningful and scalable forms of leadership because the standards we model today shape patient care for decades to come. I hope my work in entrepreneurship will bridge medicine and business in ways that advance the field by developing technologies that improve not only patient outcomes, but also the experience and long-term well-being of surgeons themselves. Finally, as someone deeply committed to advancing women in leadership within surgery, I hope to leave behind pathways and opportunities that remain open long after my own leadership roles end.
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