Originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, Dr. Tavana attended college at Stanford University, where he earned a BS in biology in 2000. Medical school brought him back east to Philadelphia, where he obtained his medical degree at Temple University in 2004. Residency sent him south to the University of South Florida, where after completing his internship in general surgery, he continued his plastic surgery residency at USF, graduating in 2011. Further fellowship training in the specialty of hand and upper extremity surgery continued in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, through the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.