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Join us at the Beach! VSEPS Annual Meeting, June 26 - 27 |
The VSEPS Education Fund will host our annual scientific meeting, June 26-27, at the Virginia Beach Hilton Oceanfront. Educational programming begins at 2pm on Friday, June 26. Friday's sessions end with a wind down reception. The education resumes on Saturday at 8:00am until 2:00pm, leaving plenty of time to stick your toes in the sand! Make it a family getaway! Our venue, the Virginia Beach Hilton Oceanfront Hotel is offering special group rates, available three days before and three days after the conference, based on availability. |
Featuring guest presenters |
Kristen Harris Nwanyanwu, MD, MBA, MHS Dr. Nwanyanwu is a board‑certified ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon whose work centers on eliminating health disparities in eye care. A graduate of the University of Michigan with highest honors, she earned her MD and MBA at the University of Pennsylvania and completed residency at Michigan followed by a vitreoretinal fellowship at the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary. Now a faculty member at Yale, she completed the YCCI Junior Faculty Scholars Program and earned a Master of Health Science with Honors. She leads the NIH‑funded SEEN Program, which uses multi‑method approaches to identify and address disparities in diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Nwanyanwu lectures nationally on health disparities, access to care, and the surgical management of diabetic eye disease. |
Julius Oatts, MD Dr. Oatts is an attending physician in the division of ophthalmology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an Associate Professor at the Scheie Eye Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His clinical expertise is in pediatric ophthalmology and childhood glaucoma. His research focuses on detecting preventable childhood vision loss in low resource settings nationally and internationally. He also has an interest in the pediatric ophthalmology pathway and is a co-founder of the Pediatric Ophthalmology Mentorship program.
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UVA Oculoplastics Professor Recognized for Exceptional International Service
Shannath Merbs, MD, PhD, FACS, a new UVA faculty member, received the AAO’s 2025 Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award. This award recognizes Academy members with a demonstrated a pattern of humanitarian service in the United States or abroad. Dr. Merbs was nominated by the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) for her two decades of work toward combating trachomatous trichiasis (TT), the leading infectious cause of blindness affecting the world’s poorest communities. She’s active in training, research and providing surgical care in countries including Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Colombia. Weathering COVID-19, political arrests, travel advisories, and other challenges, Dr. Merbs personally performed surgeries in remote villages under difficult conditions. Her work has directly benefited over 8,000 individuals and impacted thousands more through training, creating lasting change in global blindness prevention.