Faculty - 29th Annual American Uveitis Society Winter Symposium

Sheila T. Angeles-Han, MD, MSc is a pediatric rheumatologist, Professor of Pediatrics, and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati. Her research centers on identifying ocular biomarkers and genetic risk factors of uveitis in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), evaluating predictors of treatment response, and establishing comprehensive outcome measures for pediatric uveitis. She developed the Effects of Youngsters’ Eyesight on Quality of Life questionnaire (EYE-Q©) – the only validated tool to assess quality of life and function in children with uveitis and leads an ongoing local registry and biorepository on autoimmune ocular disease and JIA.

Phoebe Lin, MD, PhD, graduated summa cum laude, Biochemistry, from Washington University, AOA with Honors from the MD/PhD program at the University of Illinois, then completed ophthalmology residency at UCSF, a vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at Duke University, and a uveitis fellowship at Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health & Science University. At Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, she performs clinical care in ocular inflammatory and retinal diseases, vitreoretinal surgery, educates residents and fellows, and performs research identifying novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of ocular inflammatory disease and macular degeneration. Specifically, her lab utilizes animal models of uveitis (an inflammatory condition of the middle lining of the eye) to address several pathways: leukocyte migration in autoimmune uveitis, immune regulation as a target for autoimmune uveitis, and the role of the mammalian commensal intestinal microbiota in intestinal immunity and systemic immunity affecting the development and mitigation of ocular inflammation. Dr. Lin’s lab is also investigating the impact of an intestinal dysbiosis that occurs in age-related macular degeneration, a disease that is caused by disruptions in innate immunity and fatty acid metabolism. She has published over 100 articles, book chapters, and books.

Julie Schallhorn, MD MS, is Professor of Ophthalmology and Rose B. Williams Endowed Chair in Corneal Research at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Ophthalmology and the Francis I. Proctor Foundation. She completed a residency in ophthalmology at University of California, San Francisco, and fellowships in Uveitis at the Proctor Foundation at the University of California, San Francisco and in Cornea and External Disease at the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon. She sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Refractive Surgery, and is the past chair of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Refractive Intervention Ophthalmic Technology Assessment committee. She currently serves as the Medical Director of the Refractive Surgery division at UCSF, and is actively involved in corneal and refractive surgery research and surgical education.

Akbar Shakoor, MD graduated from The Aga Khan University College of Medicine in Karachi, Pakistan. He completed his Residency at University of Virginia in Ophthalmology and continued on to the University of California, F.I. Proctor Foundation Fellowship in Uveitis, Cornea, and External Diseases. He finalized his fellowship training with a Vitreoretinal Fellowship at the University of Utah John A. Moran Eye Center.

Dr. Shakoor is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at The John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah. He is a member of both the Vitreoretinal and the Uveitis and Ocular Inflammatory Disease Division. He is the Co-Director of their Uveitis Fellowship Program as well as the Director of an International Council of Ophthalmology accredited International Uveitis Fellowship. Dr. Shakoor is an active clinician and an educator as well. He has mentored many clinical fellows, residents and medical students at the University of Utah. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist and is a participating member of American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Uveitis Society.

Jennifer E. Thorne, MD, PHD is the Cross Family Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, chief of the Division of Ocular Immunology and Uveitis, director of Wilmer’s Uveitis Fellowship, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an internationally recognized expert in the evaluation and management of patients with uveitis and ocular inflammatory diseases. She serves as medical officer for the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Research Group, is editor in chief of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation and is Chair of the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology Fellowship Compliance Committee. Her research interests include birdshot chorioretinitis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis-related uveitis, and treatment outcomes of immunosuppressive drug therapy for uveitis. She is the recipient of the AAO Senior Achievement and Secretariat Awards and currently serves as the AUS representative for the AAO Council.

Demetrios G. Vavvas, MD, PhD, is the Solman and Libe Friedman Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of the Ocular Regenerative Medicine Institute. Dr. Vavvas also serves as Director of the Retina Service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

He is an active member of the retina faculty seeing a variety of surgical and medical vitreoretinal diseases. Dr. Vavvas' clinical work focuses on macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, trauma and oncology. He was the first to describe use of small gauge vitrectomy for complications of cataract surgery and trauma and has described a modified approach to an old surgical technique called scleral buckle in order to make it more predictable and easier to teach to trainees. Along with Drs. Dean Eliott and John B. Miller, he co-directs and organizes the Annual Fellows Course tailored for first-year vitreoretinal fellows from over 20 different programs in the nation.