Speakers
In celebration of RWO’s 5th Anniversary, we are thrilled to welcome world-renowned keynote speakers,
Dr. Geoffrey Tabin and Dr. Marguerite McDonald, along with more than 50 outstanding leaders in ophthalmology!
We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the remarkable keynote speakers featured below, who have generously shared their knowledge, experience, and inspiration with early-career ophthalmologists around the world throughout RWO’s first five years.
Keynote Speakers
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Keynote Speakers *
Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew: UNMASKED!
Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Cure Blindness Project.
Professor of Ophthalmology and Global Medicine at Stanford University.
Dr. Geoffrey Tabin,
MA, MD
Dr. Geoffrey Tabin is Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Cure Blindness Project. He is the Fairweather Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology and Global Medicine at Stanford University. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, four books, and a dozen book chapters related to his work in ophthalmology and the developing world.
Dr. Tabin is the fourth person in the world to reach the tallest peak on each of the seven continents, with first ascents of rock, ice and mountain climbs on all continents, including the first ascent of the (still unrepeated) East Face of Mount Everest in 1983. His passion for mountain climbing directed him to his professional career in eye care. While working as a doctor in Nepal, he witnessed a Dutch team providing the miracle of cataract surgery and watched the transformation as sight, and life, were restored to blind people. He then devoted his career to overcoming needless blindness.
Tabin graduated from Yale University and then earned an MA in Philosophy at Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship. From there, he took his interest in moral philosophy and health care delivery to Harvard Medical School, where he earned his MD in 1985. After completing an ophthalmology residency at Brown University and a fellowship in corneal surgery under Professor Hugh Taylor in Melbourne, Australia, Dr. Tabin returned to Nepal to work with Dr. Sanduk Ruit.
Tabin and Nepalese eye surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit established Cure Blindness Project in 1995 – with a vow to work to eliminate all preventable and treatable blindness from the Himalayan region in their lifetime, a goal, in Tabin’s words, “more audacious than setting out to make the first ascent of the East Face of Mount Everest.” Dr. Ruit, whom the Associated Press heralded as the “god of sight” to the world’s poor, and Tabin have proven that hospital quality standards can be applied in impoverished areas devoid of electricity and clean water. Their successful approach to restoring sight and dogged perseverance has made possible what 25 years ago seemed impossible.
Cure Blindness Project has since expanded beyond the Himalayas to encompass Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Tabin spends a considerable part of the year working in the Himalayas and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Tabin is a leader in both the national and international ophthalmic community. He has won the American Academy of Ophthalmology Humanitarian Award, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Chang/Crandall Humanitarian Award, the Dalai Lama’s Unsung Hero of Compassion Award, and top humanitarian prizes from the ophthalmology societies of India, Nepal, and COECSA (the largest pan-African Ophthalmology Society). He serves on the Education Committee for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), where he was the recipient of the Senior Honor Award, and teaches courses on cataract and corneal surgery at both the AAO and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS).
He is author of Blind Corners (Lyons Press). Second Suns: Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives (Random House), by David Oliver Relin, tells the story of Dr. Tabin and Dr. Sanduk Ruit and how they formed the Cure Blindness Project in a quest to overcome needless blindness.
Dr. Marguerite B. McDonald, MD, FACS
Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, NYU Langone Medical Center
Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, Tulane University
Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island
Dr. McDonald, born in Chicago, Illinois, received her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1976, followed by an internship at Lenox Hill Hospital and ophthalmology residency at Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital/Cornell, both in New York City. She finished her training in 1981 after a fellowship in corneal and external diseases with Dr. Herbert E. Kaufman at the LSU Medical School in New Orleans.
From 1981 Dr. McDonald held tenure at LSU Medical School and became Full Professor of Ophthalmology, Director of the Corneal Service, and Chairman of Promotions and Tenure before she established the Southern Vision Institute in New Orleans in 1994. She joined the Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island in New York in 2006. Currently, she is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at New York University in Manhattan and a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans. She is a staff physician at Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital; Island Eye Surgicenter in Westbury, NY; and Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, NY. She has been active in research having been PI on several NEI R01 research grants. She was instrumental in the development of several refractive surgical procedures including epikeratophakia, synthetic keratophakia, epi-LASIK, and conductive keratoplasty (CK). Her current research continues to focus on refractive surgery and dry eye treatments.
For her pioneering work in refractive surgery that also included development and performance of the first excimer laser procedure in patients, she has received over 90 professional recognition awards including the ISRK Lans Distinguished Refractive Surgeon Lecture, the ISRK/AAO Barraquer Lecture, the AAO Whitney Sampson Lecture, the AAO Binkhorst Lecture, the ASCRS Steinert Lecture, induction into the ASCRS Hall of Fame, the 2023 AECOS Visionary Award, and the 2024 IIIC Jan Worst Medal Lecture. She serves on numerous Editorial Boards of clinical and scientific journals and is an active member of multiple national and international professional societies that have accorded recognition including: Honorary President, Founding Member, International Association of Women Eye Surgeons; President, Association of Women Eye Surgeons; President, ASCRS; President, ISRS/AAO; President, International Society for Contact Lens Research and was inducted into the ASCRS Ophthalmology Hall of Fame in 2023. She has over 1,800 publications and a number of patents in the fields of cornea and refractive surgery.
Dr. McDonald lives in Port Washington, NY, with her husband. She enjoys tennis, swimming, and walking. She has been active in a number of local and national charitable organizations.
