Friday, March 26, 2021 Speaker Biographies Michael T. Andreoli, MD Michael T. Andreoli, M.D. is in practice at the Wheaton Eye Clinic. He specializes in diseases of the retina and vitreous, as well as benign tumors and malignant cancers of the posterior segment. He provides medical, laser, and surgical management for a wide array of conditions, including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, epiretinal membranes, macular holes, retinal detachments, and uveal melanoma. Dr. Andreoli graduated magna cum laude from both Boston University and Boston University School of Medicine, where he was nominated to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. During medical school, he received the Dean Eleanor Tyler Memorial Award as the top student in the accelerated medical program and the Edith G. Chess Scholarship for the outstanding student in ophthalmology. He then completed his ophthalmology residency, serving as Chief Resident, and his vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, University of Illinois at Chicago. He subsequently pursued advanced fellowship training in ocular oncology. Dr. Andreoli has authored 10 book chapters and over 70 scientific papers and national meeting presentations. He has contributed to leading textbooks in the field including Ryan’s Retina and The Retina Atlas. Pooja Bhat, MD Dr. Bhat is Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Co-director of the Uveitis Service at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also the Director of Medical Student Education and the Associate Residency Program Director. Her primary focus is on the diagnosis and management of infectious and non-infectious uveitis as well as other ocular inflammatory conditions. Dr. Bhat has conducted research on various systemic immunosuppressive agents for ocular inflammation and on herpetic diseases of the eye especially herpetic scleritis. Her current research interests include topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors for treatment of inflammatory macular edema and use of higher doses of biologics including biosimilars for the treatment of recalcitrant ocular inflammatory diseases. Dr. Bhat was a Research Fellow under Dr. C. Stephen Foster at the Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institution and an Ophthalmic Pathology Fellow under Dr. Frederick A. Jakobiec at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. She completed a clinical fellowship in Ocular Immunology and Uveitis under Dr. Debra A. Goldstein at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Bhat joined the faculty in Aug of 2014. R.V. Paul Chan, MD, MSc, MBA, FACS R.V. Paul Chan, MD is The John H. Panton, MD Professor of Ophthalmology Head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. He is also Director of the Pediatric Retina and ROP Service and Co-Director, Vitreoretinal Fellowship at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, University of Illinois at Chicago. His clinical practice focuses on vitreoretinal surgery, with an expertise in pediatric retinal disease. Dr. Chan received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and MD from the Temple University School of Medicine. After completing Ophthalmology residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, he went on to a Fellowship in Vitreoretinal Surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chan spent nine years on faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College before moving to UIC in 2015. Dr. Chan is committed to global ophthalmology initiatives with a focus on both surgical training and education for the diagnosis and management of adult and pediatric retinal disease. He works with a multi-disciplinary group of investigators with expertise in neonatology, ophthalmology, biomedical informatics, international health, and medical education. Together, they have established clinical, teaching, and research collaborations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Dr. Chan is an assistant editor for the journal, Retina, and remains active in a number of major ophthalmic societies as a member of the American Eye Study Club, the American Ophthalmological Society, the Retina Society, the Macula Society, the Association of Pediatric Retina Surgeons, and the American Society of Retina Specialists. Dr. Chan serves on the Global ONE Advisory Board and the Ethics Committee for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). He is also on the Executive Committee for the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology. Dr. Chan has won numerous awards including a Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Fellowship, the Ronald G. Michels Foundation Fellowship, the Paul Kayser International Fellowship, the Excellence in Ophthalmology Vision Award (XOVA), the American Society of Retina Specialists Senior Honor Award, the Achievement Award and two Secretariat Awards by the AAO. Felix Y. Chau, MD Dr. Felix Chau currently serves as an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary (UIC-IEEI) Retina Service. He graduated from Duke University with a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering in 1996, and he originally started his career as an engineer at Motorola designing circuits, optimizing manufacturing processes and writing software for cellular and satellite phones from 1996 to 2000. Seeking to be more involved in caring for people, he changed fields and graduated from medical school at the University Of Iowa Carver College Of Medicine in 2004. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the Duke University Eye Center in 2008 and his retina fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in 2010. Dr. Chau has collaborated on multiple projects at the UIC – IEEI including imaging studies of an animal model of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), analyzing SDOCT macular changes in sickle retinopathy patients, providing vitreoretinal care for Boston Keratoprosthesis patients, and participating in various studies in diabetic retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, and other diseases. He is also involved in the care of pediatric retina patients with conditions including ROP, Stickler’s syndrome, and retinoblastoma. Amani Fawzi, MD, FARVO Dr. Fawzi is a vitreoretinal surgeon and clinician-scientist. She is the Cyrus Tang and Lee Jampol Professor of Ophthalmology in the Feinberg School of Medicine. She divides her time between her clinical/surgical practice and her NIH-Funded research at Northwestern University. At Northwestern University, Dr. Fawzi runs an active NIH-funded translational research laboratory. Her lab studies animal models of ischemic retinopathies and her clinical research focuses on novel functional retinal imaging approaches including OCT angiography, visible-light OCT and hyperspectral imaging. Recognized for her imaging research, Dr. Fawzi serves on the Editorial Boards of Scientific Reports (Nature), Retina Journal and Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, as well as serving on several NIH study sections. She has authored/coauthored over 160 peer-reviewed articles, has delivered several named Lectureships and has been elected as a member of the Retina and Macula Societies. She has received the Honor Award of the American Society of Retina Specialists and the Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Manjot Gill, MD Manjot K. Gill is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Director of the Vitreoretinal Fellowships program in the Department of Ophthalmology. She earned her medical degree and completed her ophthalmology residency at the University of Alberta in Canada. She subsequently went on to complete a fellowship in medical diseases of the retina and vitreous at Northwestern University followed by a fellowship in surgical diseases of the retina and vitreous at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School. She specializes in the medical and surgical management of vitreoretinal disorders. She has an interest in age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy and is involved in several national clinical trials in these areas. She has been the author of dozens of peer-reviewed publications and her research has been presented at national meetings. She is actively involved in undergraduate medical teaching as well as postgraduate medical education of residents and fellows in the Department of Ophthalmology and has been recognized by the Feinberg Academy of Medical Educators. She has served on the University Faculty Senate and is currently a member of the Medical Faculty Council. She is an active member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Society of Retinal Specialists, Retina and Macula Societies. Joelle Hallak, MS, PhD Dr. Hallak is Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Co-Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence in Ophthalmology (Ai-O) Center, and Director of the Ophthalmic Data Science (ODS) Laboratory. Dr. Hallak is an epidemiologist with expertise in the development of predictive and explanatory statistical modeling techniques for personalized medicine applications in ophthalmology. Her research interest is the identification of risk factors and imaging biomarkers in learning algorithms, for ophthalmic disease progression, to measure interpretable associations for clinical translations. Quan V. (Donny) Hoang MD, PhD Dr. Hoang is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke-NUS (National University of Singapore) and a Senior Consultant in Surgical Retina at the Singapore