Giving Back

Dr. Carpenter has a long history of service to his country, the local community, and abroad.

Dr. Carpenter served 18 years in the Army Reserves Medical Corps, first as a general and trauma surgeon and then as a reconstructive plastic surgeon. He retired in 2006 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. Dr. Carpenter served in an active duty capacity in 2003 during the Iraq War.

In addition to serving his country through military service, Dr. Carpenter serves his local community. In 2004, Dr. Carpenter helped to organize the Cumberland Cleft Clinic in cooperation with the Crippled Children’s League and Allegany County Health Department. The clinic is organized with multiple volunteer providers to provide comprehensive services for our patients with cleft lip and palate deformities, regardless of their ability to pay. The Cumberland Cleft Clinic is best described by its mission statement, “To provide services for children with cleft lip and/or palate by a professional team consisting of a plastic surgeon, pediatrician, ENT, dentist, orthodontist, audiologist, social worker, speech therapist, and nurse to help each child with special health care needs lead active lives and participate as full members of their schools and communities.”

The clinic has been operating for over 10 years and provides services to Cumberland and the surrounding areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Since retiring from the Army reserves, Dr. Carpenter has pursued annual overseas medical missions, primarily providing surgeries to repair cleft lip and palate deformities in the Philippines. Dr. Carpenter has participated with multiple service organizations including Christ’s Compassion for the Needy International, Compassion in Action, Smile Train, The Philippine American Medical Association of Georgia, and the East Avenue Medical Center of Manila. Missions are typically between 2 and 3 weeks, and include evaluation, repair and follow up of patients with cleft lip and palate and, more recently, treatment of deformities from burn scars. In addition to providing surgeries, Dr. Carpenter has worked as an instructor for local Filipino surgeons in rural areas, and for ENT surgeons in training at the East Avenue Medical Center in Manila. Dr. Carpenter has continued to uphold his yearly commitment to medical missions to help improve lives in underserved areas of the world since 2006.

Dr. Carpenter was also featured in Mountain Discoveries magazine in an article titled, Sharing the Art of Surgery: A Gift of Transformation. The story highlights Dr. Carpenter’s multiple medical mission trips to the Philippines and the work him and his team accomplish there. Click here to read the story online!