ASCRS Young Eye Surgeon International Service Grant
2024 Cohort
Joshua Barbosa, MD
An animating principle of Dr. Barbosa’s life has been “Freely you have received, freely give”. After graduating from college, Joshua spent two years working at the Hamilton Regional Eye Institute. Here, he had the opportunity to work with patients in the capacity of a technician and run clinical trials. Having been inspired after witnessing, first-hand, the life changing experience ophthalmic care can have on individual patient outcomes, Joshua went on to pursue a Doctor of Medicine degree at Wayne State University, followed by ophthalmology residency and an Anterior Segment Fellowship at Kresge Eye Institute. His research during medical training has focused on applying knowledge to patient disease states and on improving systematic approaches to delivering care and education. Following training, Dr. Barbosa is excited to spend a couple of years in Africa with his family providing ophthalmic care and skill translation. He is thankful to the many individuals and institutions, including this grant, that have invested in him over the years and make future endeavors possible.
Delaram Mirzania, MD
Dr. Delaram Mirzania is an ophthalmology resident at the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center, where she has been recognized with the Michigan Ophthalmology Trainee’s Career Development Award. She graduated cum laude with honors from the University of Maryland with a BS in Psychology. She went on to earn her MD from Duke University, focusing her research on innovative applications of teleretinal imaging and artificial intelligence to enhance ophthalmic screening. For her exceptional work addressing barriers to follow-up from a teleretinal screening program in a Federally Qualified Health Center, Dr. Mirzania was awarded the Retina Research Foundation Travel Grant by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). With a profound interest in global ophthalmology, Dr. Mirzania has been actively engaged in projects in Peru, India, and underserved communities in the United States and Australia, seeking to leverage innovative solutions to improve access to care in low-resource settings. Next year, she will be completing her residency training and is looking forward to exploring the practical applications of her research in community-based healthcare delivery and investigating the environmental impact of eye care in low-resource areas.
Emily M. Schehlein, MD
Dr. Emily Schehlein, MD is a glaucoma and cataract surgeon in private practice in Michigan. She received her MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she was inducted as a junior member to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. Dr. Schehlein completed her residency at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center where she began her collaboration with the Aravind Eye Hospital remotely and locally in outreach camps. She then completed her glaucoma fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. She has received multiple awards and grants for excellence in research in detection of posterior segment disease and pseudoexfoliation in India. In addition to her other research interests, Dr. Schehlein works with EyeSustain to reduce the global carbon footprint of ophthalmology. In 2023, she was the recipient of the AAO's Secretariat Award for her work in advocacy. She hopes to continue her work in sustainability and her passion for surgical glaucoma teaching internationally. In her free time, Dr. Schehlein enjoys baking, hiking, and spending time with her family.
Tu Tran, MD, MSc
I am a PGY4 Ophthalmology Resident at the University of Minnesota and will be a Cornea Fellow at UC Irvine under the mentorship of titans, Dr Marjan Farid and Dr Sumit Garg, among other amazing mentors. My family and I are Vietnamese boat people whose lives were saved on countless occasions during our journey to the USA. I was born in a Thai refugee camp and given a chance to life. Growing up in the USA has been a blessing, and I have had the opportunity to meaningfully engage in global health work, starting with Uganda in 2013 with the support of Duke neurosurgeon, Dr Mike Haglund. Since 2016, I have been able to focus on ophthalmic capacity building projects in collaboration with my mentor, Dr Simon Arunga in Mbarara, Uganda. I am fortunate to receive this award from the YISG. I am working under the auspices of the College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa (COECSA) to establish a system and network of eye bankers to routinely collect and share statistics on corneal transplantation in the 12 countries of COECSA. Our goal is to build transplantation capacity among all countries in the region, and it will be crucial to routinely measure activity against goals and benchmarks. This is a project I will continue working on as I start my career in academic cornea and global ophthalmology.
