Juris Bunkis, MD FACS
Juris Bunkis, M.D., F.A.C.S., was appointed Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lativa for Southern California in 2011. He is very active with the Los Angeles Consular Corps, the second largest Consular Corps in the United States (after New York). He has been Treasurer and served on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Consular Corps since 2015.
Juris Bunkis was born to Latvian émigré parents in a DP (displaced person or refugee) camp in Lubeck, Germany in 1949. He came to Canada with his parents in 1951 and spent his youth in mining towns in the far north of Canada. As a child, his Latvian education was provided by his parents, who fostered his love of Latvia. During summers while in high school, throughout college and medical school at the University of Toronto, he worked at Noranda Mines in Manitouwadge, Ontario, after age 18 even underground, and was able to graduate without a student loan and with a passion never to work in a mine again! He went on to study general surgery at Columbia University in New York for five years and an additional two years studying plastic surgery at Harvard University in Massachusetts. After Board Certification in both General and Plastic Surgery, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of California San Francisco, where he eventually became Chief of Plastic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, before going into private practice. He has maintained his teaching roles as a private practitioner and currently has teaching positions at Touro University College in the Bay Area since 2011 and has been an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston since 2016.
Dr. Juris Bunkis, is currently the Medical Director and Owner of Orange County Plastic Surgery in Newport Beach, CA and also an associate at Salisbury Plastic Surgery in Worcester, MA. Dr. Bunkis has 40 years of experience in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. He is widely regarded as a talented, meticulous, and attentive surgeon, which is complimented by his insightful and warm demeanor. Plastic surgeons from around the world, including some from Latvia each year, can be seen visiting Dr. Bunkis at Orange County Plastic Surgery. His caring attitude extends to his philanthropic work and volunteer efforts as well. Dr. Bunkis has also operated, lectured, and presented scientific papers throughout North/Central America and Europe. Dr. Bunkis has published a wide range of scientific articles and has also contributed numerous chapters to various medical textbooks on the subject of plastic surgery.
In recognition of his assistance in bringing modern plastic surgery education to the Czech Republic, he received honorary memberships in the Associatio Medicorum Bohemoslovacorum J.E. Purkyne and the Societas Bohemoslovaca Chirurgiae Plasticae in a ceremony at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1992. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Hospital de la Familia Foundation in San Francisco, CA. In recognition for his philanthropic work in Guatemala and elsewhere, Dr. Bunkis was bestowed knighthood by the Cavalieri di San Marco in Venice, Italy in 1995. In recognition of the same, in 2000 he was the recipient of the Angel Wings Award by the Angel Wings Foundation, Concord CA and, in 2006, was named Man of Character by the Boy Scouts of America, Orange County Chapter, in 2006. Dr. Bunkis has many outside interests. He received a pilot’s license in 1979 and has subsequently received certification as an instrument pilot, a commercial pilot, a multi-engine pilot and received a type rating to fly his Eclipse jet. Dr. Bunkis coached basketball, youth softball and baseball for years and served on the Board of the Tassajara Valley Little League, Inc and NorCal Baseball, Inc in Danville, CA. In 2001, the film F-Stops, for which he was the Executive Producer, won the Silver Medal at the Houston Film Festival. Since 2004, Dr. Bunkis has served as a volunteer with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, initially as a member of the Aero Squadron and for the last number of years as a Volunteer Deputy with the Special Services Bureau.