She is known for leading a team of eight surgeons through the first near-total face transplant performed in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic in 2008.
The patient, Connie Culp, a 45-year-old woman from a small town in Ohio, was exceedingly disfigured by a close range shotgun blast in 2004.
She is regarded as a world leader in nerve regeneration enhancement and in developing minimal immunosuppression regimens following transplantation.
[5] That same year she received an honorary academic appointment as Professor of Surgery at the Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznan, Poland.
She is a member of the Warrior Restoration Consortium, an academic-industry team focused on developing new treatments for wounded soldiers.
[citation needed] Siemionow has received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (presented by Ambassador Robert Kupiecki) for her contribution to the development of microsurgery and transplantation medicine.