Expo
Welcoming
COECSA SPEAKERS 2025 2025
We are pleased to introduce the faculty of speakers for the forthcoming 12th Congress of the COECSA.
Dr. Kombo
Dr. Kombo received her M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine, where she also completed her ophthalmology residency. She completed fellowship training in Uveitis and Ocular Immunology at The Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institution (MERSI) under the mentorship of Dr. C. Stephen Foster where she was the Chief Clinical Fellow. Dr. Kombo has served on the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual
Sciences since 2014. She is Director of the Uveitis Service and Director of Medical Student Education in Ophthalmology. She also serves as the Chief of Ophthalmology at the West Haven Veterans Hospital, and is the Associate Director of Global Health for Ophthalmology.
J.Peter Campbell MD, MPH
As a public-health trained vitreoretinal surgeon, I have been building a career at the intersection of clinical medicine and public health, focused on utilizing quantitative imaging techniques to improve the clinical outcomes of pediatric patients with retinal disease at both the individual and population level. Since joining the faculty at the Oregon Health & Science University 4 years ago, I have been actively involved in two main research areas: imaging and the development of artificial intelligence (Al) for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) diagnosis, as part of the i-ROP research consortium headed by Michael Chiang, MD at OHSU, and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), as part of the Center for Ophthalmic Optics & Lasers (COOL Lab) headed by David Huang, MD at OHSU.
Dr. Anand Vinegar
Dr. Anand Vinekar is currently Professor & Head of Department of the Pediatric Retina Service at Narayana Nethralaya Eye Institute, Bangalore, India. and the Founder and Program Director of KIDROP. KIDROP is India’s first Tele-ROP program to screen for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in rural areas and is currently the largest ROP program in the world having completed over 280,000 (2023) screening sessions in over 145 neonatal centers.
KIDROP’s model of non-physician based screening through imaging, triaging and grading has been hailed as the most scalable model of ROP screening particularly in middle and low income settings where there are few specialists.
The program has won several national & international awards and has been cited by UNDP, Niti Ayog, Harvard Business Review, IIM A &
B and validated on the CDC Guidelines and has been modelled by several states in India as well as some nations around the world.
Prof. John H. Kempen
Prof. John H. Kempen, an ocular inflammation and clinical epidemiol-
ogy expert, serves as Director of Epidemiology for Ophthalmology,
Director of Global Surgery and Health-Ophthalmology and Senior
Scholar, Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute
as well as Professor of Ophthalmology (PT), and Affiliate, Department
of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. He
also is Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology at MyungSung Medical
College and Addis Ababa University. He is co-founder and President
of Sight for Souls, an international eye care development organiza-
tion. Dr. Kempen received the American Academy of Ophthalmology
Humanitarian Award (2020) for his development, clinical, teaching
and research work in Ethiopia, where he primarily has lived with his
family since 2015, being seconded much of each year to develop
self-sustaining eye care (not taking profits) and uveitis training
programs while carrying on his global research program. His
research focuses primarily on ocular inflammatory diseases and
infections, including trachoma, and the global burden of eye diseases,
He served as Executive Editor for Uveitis for the American Journal of
Ophthalmology for six years and is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus for
Ophthalmic Epidemiology. He serves as International Director of
Education for the International Uveitis Study Group. Prof. Kempen
has approximately 350 publications which have been cited 38,436
times as of May 26, 2025.
Dr. Aeesha Nusrat Jehan Malik
I am a Clinical Assistant Professor in Child Eye Health based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in
the International Centre of Eye Health. My work focusses on reducing avoidable childhood visual loss and inequity in low and middle income countries through strengthening healthcare systems and integrating eye care into child health programmes and policies, specifically on primary eye care and Retinopathy of Prematurity. I am currently working with WHO and UNICEF on creating evidence and policy for
including eye health into their child health policies. I have co-founded my own NGO, Eye Sha Foundation, registered in the UK which focuses on reducing childhood blindness in MICs. I continue to work part time as a Consultant Pediatric Ophthalmologist
Dr. Karl Golnik
Dr. Karl Golnik is Professor at the Barrow Neuroscience Institute, Creighton University and the University of Arizona. He has received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Lifetime Achievement award. the North American Neuro-ophthalmology Society’s Merit Award and more than 10 teaching awards throughout his career. He has given more than 1200 invited neuro ophthalmology and medical education lectures in more than 75 countries and has over 60 publications in these fields. He is a member of the American Ophthalmological Society, the Academia Ophthal-mologica Internationalis and he currently serves as a Board member and Chair for Education of the Ophthalmology Foundation.
Dr. Emebet Getahun Tabor
Dr Emebet Getahun Tabor received her M.D form Jimma Institute of Health Science. She completed her ophthalmology residency at Addis Ababa Medical Faculty where she served as the Chief Resident. She completed her fellowship on medical retina at Saint Merry Catholic University of Korea and Asan Medical Center Seoul, South Korea. Dr Emebet completed her fellowship training in Uveitis and the first uveitis specialist to qualify in sub-Saharan Africa (except South Africa). She has served at the MCM Comprehensive Specialized Hospital Eye Unit since 2012. Prior to MCM, before specialization, she worked at Jimma University Department of Ophthalmology and Grarbet Tehadiso Mahber. She is Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Medical Student Education in Ophthalmology at MyungSung Medical College.
Dr. Amare Atoma
Dr. Amare Atoma has received his MD. from Jimma University School of Medicine. He also completed his ophthalmology residency at Jimma University Institution of health, Department of Ophthalmology. He has completed fellowship training in Uveitis and Ocular Inflammatory disease subspecialty at:
1 Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Nepal
2. Myungsung Christian Medical college, Korea Hospital under the mentorship of Professor. John H Kempen.
3.Sankara Nethralaya, Medical research foundation,
Chennai, India under the mentorship of Professor
Jyotirmay Biswas.
4. Aravind EyeHospital, Postgraduate Institute of
Ophthalmology, Madurai, India under mentorship of
Professor SR Ratnam.
Amare has served on the faculty at the Jimma University, Institution of health Department of Ophthalmology since 2014. He is head of the Uveitis Service.
Dr. James Lehmann
James Lehmann, MD is a board-certified Cornea, Cataract, and Refractive Surgeon in private practice at Focal Point Vision in San Antonio, Texas. He is adjunct faculty at UT Health San Antonio and is a former ORBIS staff ophthalmologist. His areas of interest include advanced anterior segment surgery and volunteering several weeks a year overseas teaching cataract and corneal surgery. He is a reviewer for the journal Cornea, and he serves as a board member for the San Antonio Eye Bank, Society for Excellence in Eye Care, and the San Antonio Society of Ophthalmology. Lastly, he has been a primary investigator in over fifteen FDA trials over the decade.
Prof. Ciku Mathenge
Cikü Mathenge is a Consultant Ophthalmologist and Medical
Retina specialist. She is a Co Founder and Director of Training and Research at the Rwanda International Institute of Ophthalmology in Kigali, Rwanda. Ciku, a Professor of Ophthalmology at University of Rwanda was a Member of the Board of Trustees of the International Council of Ophthalmology from 2013 to 2021. She currently serves on the Boards of Ophthalmology Foundation and The Fred Hollows Foundation and is currently the only African member of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis. She is also the Medical Advisor for Africa for Orbis international. She has been on the Ophthalmology List of 100 most influential female ophthalmologists, an IAPB Eye Health Hero and Vision Excellence Award winner. She is the first female President of the African Ophthalmology Council. Ciku has served COECSA as Head of Education in the past and currently heads the Training if
Trainers Sub Committee.
Prof. Jyotirmay Biswas
Prof. Jyotirmay Biswas is an ophthalmologist who has specialized in uveitis and ophthalmic pathology. He has done fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery from Sankara Nethralaya and fellowship in ophthalmic pathology from University of Southern California, USA. He has published 575 articles in pubmed indexed journals, 70 chapters and seven books. He is a visiting professor at Advance Eve Care Center at PGIMER Chandigarh and Chinese University of Hongkong. He has mentored 61 uveitis fellows. He has received 61 awards including Har OM Ashram Alembic research award from Indian Council Medical Research given by the President of India. He is a member of American College of surgeons, International Uveitis Study Group, American Uveitis Society and International Ocular Inflammation Society and fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences. He is the founding member and past president of Uveitis Society of India. He is the founding president of Society of Inflammation research. He was the first to describe ocular lesions in AIDS in India. He has been ranked 8th in top 2% of Indian researcher
in Ophthalmology. He is working as director of uveitis and ophthalmic pathology departments at Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai. He was given the lifetime achievement award by All India Ophthalmological society in 2024 and Top 100 Ophthalmology by Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Geoffrey Tabin
Geoffrey Tabin, M.D. is the Fairweather Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology and Global Medicine at Stanford University and founding director of the Himalayan Cataract Project ( now Cureblindness Project – www.cureblindness.org) Dr. Tabin graduated from Yale College, then earned a M.A. in philosophy at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Brown University and a fellowship in corneal diseases and surgery at Melbourne University, Australia. He then worked in Nepal teaching cataract surgery and developing training programs. In 1995 he co-founded the Himalayan Cataract Project (www.cureblindness.org) which is working to eradicate preventable and curable blindness through high quality ophthalmic care, education and the establishment of world class eye care infrastructure. Tabin is a cornea specialist and director of global ophthalmology at Stanford. He is author of four books and more than 100 peer reviewed articles and book chapters.
Dr. Alemayehu Sisay
Dr. Alemayehu Sisay is currently the Country Director of Orbis International in Ethiopia and a senior ophthalmologist renowned globally for his expertise in trachoma. He is a strong advocate for integrated, people-centered comprehensive eye care to combat avoidable visual impairment and blindness in developing countries. His work spans from community-level engagement to the establishment of tertiary eye institutes, with a focus on pediatric ophthalmology and other subspecialties. Dr. Alemayehu leads one of the largest trachoma elimination operations in Ethiopia and globally, impacting millions of people annually. He has provided significant technical and managerial support to programs delivering comprehensive eye care at community, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels and has been a principal investigator in groundbreaking research on TT surgery. With over 20 years of experience, he has successfully led grant applications and program implementations and actively participated in strategic eye care initiatives.
Dr. Dan Kiage
Dr Daniel Kiage is the Founder and Medical Director of Kisii Eye Hospital, a social enterprise that avails high quality eye care services to the southwestern part of Kenya. He attended his undergraduate medical training and Master of Medicine [Ophthalmology] at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He later proceeded to the University of Ottawa,
Canada, for a Clinical and Research Fellowship in Glaucoma. Dr Kiage has served in several national, regional, and international positions. He has published 15 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented over 100 papers at major national, regional, and international conferences. Prof. Kiage is married and has 2 adult children.
Dr. Nahom Ayalew
Dr. Guteta Gebremichael is an ophthalmologist and a glaucoma subpecialist, working at ALERT compressive specialized hospital. He has got medical doctorate and ophthalmology certificate from imma University and
glaucoma sub-speciality certificate from Lv Prasad eye institute, India.
Dr. Guteta Gebremicael
Dr. Guteta Gebremichael is an ophthalmologist and a glaucoma subpecialist, working at ALERT compressive specialized hospital. He has got medical doctorate and ophthalmology certificate from imma University and
glaucoma sub-speciality certificate from Lv Prasad eye institute, India.
Hulda Nduru
Hulda Nduru is a seasoned Programme Manager with extensive experience leading large-scale eye health initiatives across Africa. As a Programme Management Lead at Peek Vision, Hulda is responsible for designing and managing implementation of innovation, technology-enabled public eye health programmes that improve accessibility, efficiency, and equity in eye care service delivery.
She has successfully worked with governments, NGOs, and international partners across more than 1:1 countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana – to strengthen eye health systems. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public hEALTH (MPH), holds an MSC in Professional Accountancy, a BSc in Actuarial Science, and is an ACCA Affiliate. She has demonstrated expertise in project management, data-driven decision-making, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Dr. Monicah Bitok
Dr Monicah is a Public Health Expert and Ophthalmologist with over 17 years’ experience in clinical practice, policy, and publich health. She holds Master’s degress in Ophthalmology and Publich Health, a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, and is a COECSA Fellow. An alumna of Strathmore University and Harvard University’s Global Health Delivery Intense course, she is passionate about health systems strengthening. She has worked as technical advisor for disability-inclusive eye health programs for Sightsavers and CBM-Global across Asia, Souoth America, and Africa. Currently, she serves as the Acting Head of the Eye Health Section at Kenya’s Ministry of Health.
Dr. Feven Tadesse
Dr Feven Tadesse is a senior glaucoma specialist and ophthalmology department head at St Peter’s Hospital. She earned her MD from Hawassa University and completed ophthalmology speciality training and glaucoma subspeciality training from Addis Ababa University. She has served in various academic and professional leadership roles including residency coordinator, national medical licensing examination, leading ophthalmology department and serving as vice president of ophthalmological society of Ethiopia.
Dr. Gad Dusengimana
Dr. Gad Dusengimana is a second-year ophthalmology resident at the Rwanda International Institute of Ophthalmology (RIIO), where he is undergoing advanced clinical training and Research in the field of eye health. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rwanda in 2019 and subsequently served in the public health sector for three years, gaining valuable experience in patient care and healthcare delivery at the community level. In 2023, Dr. Gad joined RIIO to pursue his specialization in ophthalmology. Passionate about improving access to quality eye care, he is actively involved in academic, clinical, and community outreach initiatives aimed at reducing the burden of preventable blindness., he aspires to contribute to the development and expansion of eye care services both regionally and internationally. Dr. Gad is a proud trainee of the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA), and looks forward to learning, collaborating, and sharing knowledge with peers across the continent.
Dr. Phyllis Moonga
Dr Phyllis Moonga, MD, MMED Ophthalmology, Glaucoma Fellowship, is a consultant ophthalmologist/glaucoma Specialist at the University Teaching Hospitals – Eye Hospital in Luska Zambia. She also serves as the National Eye Health Coordinator, at the Ministry of Health in Zambia.
Dr. Fisiha Ademe
Dr. Fisiha Ademe Worku (MD) is a General Ophthalmologist at Warder General Hospital in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, where he provides critical eye care services to underserved communities. He earned his medical degree (2018) and completed his specialty training in Ophthalmology January 2025) from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Dr. Fisiha’s research focuses on improving surgical outcomes and addressing preventable blindness, including his
unpublished studies on “refractive outcomes after MICS at Menelik Hospital” and “prevalence and causes of childhood blindness in Mesqan District, Gurage Zone”. Passionate about equitable eye care, he combines clinical practice with research to bridge gaps in ophthalmic services across Ethiopia. He is honored to present his findings at the 2025 COECSA Congress.
Dr. Kirubel Tesfaye
I am a general ophthalmologist with experience in both medical and surgical eye care, currently working as a general ophthalmologist at Ethio-Tebib General Hospital. My responsibilities include diagnosing and managing common and complex eye conditions, performing cataract and other surgeries, and providing outpatient, inpatient and emergency ophthalmic services. I previously served as Chief Ophthalmology Resident, during my training at Addis Ababa University. I am also a recipient of the CBM(Christian Blind Mission) Scholarship for the Master of Medicine in Ophthalmology program. I am committed to delivering quality patient care and continuously developing my professional skills to keep pace with advancements in ophthalmology.