Events

Lama A. Al-Aswad, MD, MPH received her medical degree from Damascus University Medical School and completed her glaucoma research fellowship at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in ophthalmology at the SUNY Downstate and her glaucoma clinical fellowship at the University of Tennessee. In 2015, she received a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health for her work in healthcare policy and management. Her current positions include Professor of Ophthalmology and the Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given Research Professor of Ophthalmology II, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania; Vice Chair for Quality and Safety, and Director of Teleophthalmology, AI and Innovations. She is an affiliated faculty member at the Penn Research in Embedded Computing and Integrated Systems Engineering (PRECISE) Center at the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. AL-Aswad is the founder and past president of the New York chapter of Women in Ophthalmology. She currently serves as a member at-large of the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting secretariat and the program committee, the American Glaucoma Society and an examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology. She holds an appointment with the FDA as a voting member on the ophthalmic device panel.

Jeremiah Tao, MD, FACS is a professor and the Chief of Oculofacial Plastic and Orbital Surgery at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Dr. Tao’s past positions have included Meetings Program Chair and Executive Committee for the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS). He has served as the Oculofacial Plastic Surgery Subspecialty Liaison to the American Board of Ophthalmology for which he is currently an examiner and a member of the Oculoplastics Exam Development Committee. He has trained many oculofacial plastic surgeons practicing in the U.S., as well as several countries around the world. He is the editor of EyeNet’s Ophthalmic Pearls, the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s (AAO) newsmagazine, as well as the editor of the textbooks Plastic Surgery of the Lower Eyelids and Efficient Oculofacial Plastic Surgery. He has written over one-hundred peer reviewed papers and book chapters in various aspects of orbit, eyelid, lacrimal, and facial cosmetic surgery. Dr. Tao serves as a member of the American Ophthalmological Society.

Sami Uwaydat, MD is a professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, Arkansas. He received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and completed his ophthalmology residency at the American University of Beirut and the Jones Eye Institute. Following residency, he pursued a Medical Retina fellowship at New York University and a Vitreoretinal Surgery fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Uwaydat holds the Martha Wood Bentley Chair in Ophthalmology and serves as the Medical Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at UAMS. He is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. Dr. Uwaydat is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Retina Specialists, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has contributed to approximately eighty articles and book chapters in the fields of medical and surgical retina. He has received multiple honors, including the Raymond and Mary Morris Residency Research Award, and the Outstanding Faculty Award for four years.