Donald Wood-Smith was a professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an attending surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He was also chairman of the department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Wood-Smith was born as Donald Smith in Sydney, Australia on 30 June 1931 and was educated at Newington College (1944–1947), the University of Sydney Medical School and the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was then a resident at NYU Langone Medical Center and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital and as a fellow at Bellevue Hospital and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Wood-Smith has been quoted in the press on issues related to cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.