Featured Speakers

Dr. Apte is the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, where he serves as the Director of Translational Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and is a Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology and Medicine. Dr. Apte is a vitreoretinal surgeon and clinician scientist. His basic research is focused on inflammation, aging, neurodegeneration, and angiogenesis. His clinical research spans the translational spectrum from drug discovery and development to clinical trials. Dr. Apte has published extensively in basic and clinical peer-reviewed journals and has participated as a principal investigator in numerous clinical trials.  

Dr. Apte has won numerous awards, honors, and educational scholarships. His research has been published in high impact journals including Nature, Cell, Cell Metabolism, the JCI, Nature Communications, PLoS Medicine, PNAS, among others. He teaches and lectures extensively as a mentor at Washington University, St. Louis and through participation at academic conferences throughout the world. He is a member of  the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Retina Specialists, and the Association for Research in Visual Ophthalmology 

Lainie Ross, MD, PhD, joined the University of Rochester in January 2023 as Dean’s Professor and inaugural Chair, Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics and Director of the Paul M. Schyve MD Center for Bioethics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics. Prior to her move, Dr. Ross was the Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum Professor of Clinical Medical Ethics; Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, Surgery and the College; Co-Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine, and Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. Clinically, Dr. Ross is a primary care pediatrician. She ran the clinical ethics consultation service at the University of Chicago for 20 years and the research ethics consultation for 25 years.

Dr. Ross has lectured nationally and internationally on ethical and policy issues in organ transplantation, pediatrics, genetics, and human subjects protections. She has published five books and over 400 articles. She is currently writing a 6th book examining the ethical issues related to siblings in health care that received funding from the National Library of Medicine. Her five areas of expertise are: 1) pediatric ethics and policy; 2) genetic ethics and policy; 3) transplantation ethics and policy; 4) research ethics, publication ethics, and human subjects protection; and 5) gender and racial equity across the 3 academic pillars.

Robert Fechtner, MD is Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York. He specializes in diagnosis and medical and surgical treatment of glaucoma. His research interests include glaucoma pharmacology, diagnostic technology and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery. He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles, textbook chapters and, research abstracts and lectures throughout North America. 

He received both an undergraduate degree in biosciences and his medical degree from the University of Michigan. After graduating from medical school, he completed two research fellowships in glaucoma: the first was at Tufts new England Medical Center, followed by another at Montefiore Medical Center. He then completed his ophthalmology residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and continued his training at the University of California, San Diego, pursuing a medical and surgical fellowship in glaucoma. He then pursued a career in academic medicine, including rising to the rank of professor and director of the glaucoma division at Rutgers University before accepting his current position as department chair at SUNY Upstate medical University  

Sandra Sieminiski, MD, is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, the Director of the Glaucoma Chair and Clinical Vice Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Buffalo. Her research interests include exfoliative glaucoma, traumatic glaucoma, and laser therapy in glaucoma with her work spanning academic and clinical disciplines. This includes more than two dozen peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and abstracts. She also has a keen interest in ophthalmic and medical education, serving as the Clerkship Director for Ophthalmology at the Jacobs School of Medicine 

She completed her undergraduate education Brown University and went on to pursue her medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She then traveled to Georgetown University to complete her ophthalmology training and received fellowship training in glaucoma at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.  She is active as a journal reviewer, mentor, and holds several executive roles with the American Glaucoma Society and with the Glaucoma Research Foundation.