Nicolás M. Kass, MS

Nico was born and raised in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, and moved to southern California to attend Pomona College where he majored in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, with a focus in Computer Science. As an undergraduate, Nico served as President of the Pomona College student body in his senior year, working toward a future career in education policy. After graduation, he spent a year training and competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under the multiple-time world champion Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles before moving to Washington, DC as an AmeriCorps Fellow. There, he taught middle school science and became inspired to change career paths in pursuit of medicine. Nico first completed the Goucher College Pre-medical Postbaccalaureate program, then matriculated at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPSOM) where he is in the Clinical Scientist Training Program (MD/MSc). Early in medical school, he became fascinated with reconstructive surgery, cofounding the Reconstructive and Regenerative Medicine Area of Concentration, a four-year paracurricular medical student certificate program. He served as President of his medical school class, Vice-President of the Pittmed Latino Medical Student Association chapter, Medical Student Coordinator of the Birmingham Free Clinic, and is currently working to establish a free wound care service in Pittsburgh. While earning his Master’s Degree, he is serving as a Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery Research Fellow under Dr. Jesse Goldstein and Surreality AR/AI Innovation Fellow under Dr. Ted Andrews. In his free time, he enjoys training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai as well as reading speculative-fiction and comic books.