Rotaplast International

Dr. Angelo Capozzi is a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon and co-founder of Rotaplast International. In 1971, Dr. Capozzi became a member of the San Francisco Rotary Club and now belongs to Tiburon/Belvedere Rotary Club. In 1992, Dr. Capozzi and PDG Peter Lagarias founded Rotaplast International in collaboration with the Rotary Club of San Francisco to facilitate a surgical program in La Serena, Chile. This initial historic mission to treat children with the cleft lip and palate anomaly, who would otherwise not receive surgical intervention, took place in January of 1993.

As a project of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, and for the first three years of its existence, Rotaplast completed one surgical mission a year. The following two years, Rotaplast completed two missions a year. In 1996, Rotaplast became a separate non-profit corporation and has since consistently expanded its number of annual missions. In December 2023, Rotaplast sent its 258th mission and to date has served over 21,000 patients. Twenty-six countries have hosted Rotaplast teams, including Vietnam, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador, Romania, China, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Brazil, Bangladesh, Mali, Togo, Liberia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Tanzania, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

Dr. Capozzi now devotes his practice to humanitarian medicine and international service. To date, he has been on 76 international surgical trips with Rotaplast, including Sylhet five times and eight trips to Bangladesh. Dr. Capozzi currently serves as Rotaplast’s Medical Director and International Committee Chair.