ASCRS Foundation Young Eye Surgeon International Service Grant
2022 Grantee Cohort
Aakriti Garg Shukla, MD
Dr. Aaki Shukla is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wills Eye Hospital/Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia, PA. She received her M.D. at Columbia University in New York City, where she was awarded a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship and earned the Edith and Denton McKane Memorial Award for Outstanding Research in Ophthalmology. She completed her training as an ophthalmology resident and served as chief resident at Columbia University. She pursued further glaucoma subspecialty training at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Shukla has volunteered for international medical and surgical work in several locations including Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and India. Her collaborations with the outstanding faculty at the Aravind Eye Hospital have resulted in publications on minimizing surgical waste, utilization of glaucoma care, surgical outcomes, and patient concerns during COVID-19. She is the co-chair of the ASCRS YES Sustainability Committee (EyeSustain) and is a member of the Instrument Sterilization and Pharmaceutical Waste Subcommittee. Her passion for global ophthalmology met her interests in sustainability through her projects at the Aravind Eye Hospital, where she plans to evaluate contamination and performance measures of reusable surgical products and operating room attire.
Wanja Mathenge, MD
Dr. Wanja Mathenge is the current global ophthalmology fellow at Byers Eye Institute at Stanford and the Himalayan Cataract Project. She received her BSc. in neuroscience at the University of Miami and completed a joint MD / MSc. Global Health degree at Duke University. She then proceeded to complete her ophthalmology residency at Howard University Hospital in Washington DC. While in medical school, Dr. Mathenge was involved in the Tema Eye Survey, a longitudinal study looking at the characteristics of open angle glaucoma in an urban west African population. Her interests are centered on ophthalmic capacity building, educational advocacy, and mentorship, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Mathenge is also the founder of GariMacho, a non-profit whose mission is to increase vision screening among school age children in Kenya. In her free time, you will find her running, spending time with family or dancing to the latest Afrobeats song.
