Current Residents

Alison graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and attended medical school at UC San Diego School of Medicine. She completed her internship at UHS Medical Education Consortium in Temecula, California. While in medical school, Alison was awarded the NIH Medical Student Training in Aging Research grant to study retinal ischemic perivascular lesions as a biomarker for underlying cardiovascular diseases.

Her current research interests include social determinants of health in ophthalmology, innovations in ophthalmic medical education, and bioinformatics. Alison is passionate about developing accessible educational tools and previously served as a glaucoma section writer for The Lens, an ophthalmology research newsletter for medical trainees.

In her free time, Alison enjoys cycling, weightlifting, fostering animals, traveling, and cooking.

Skenda received her bachelor's degree in public health from Brown University before continuing on to receive her medical degree from the Warren Alpert Medical School through the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). She completed her internship in a transitional year program at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital in Miami.

During her undergraduate years, she fostered a love for global health through studying abroad and engaging in international research. In medical school, Skenda focused on service and advocacy through involvement in the local free clinic and various student groups such as the Student National Medical Association and Brown Human Rights Asylum Clinic. She hopes to combine her interests in global health and medical education to serve under-resourced communities in the United States and abroad.

In her free time, Skenda enjoys exploring mindful movement, particularly yoga, as well as traveling, reading, and trashy reality TV.

Justin completed medical school at the Duke University School of Medicine, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Miami. He completed a Transitional Year internship at UHS SoCal MEC. Justin's research interests include ophthalmic imaging, quality improvement and data standardization, and the retinal manifestation of neurodegenerative disease, for which he was awarded a VRSF Grant.

His interests included classical piano, and table tennis. In his spare time, he serves as producer for the retina podcast 'Straight From The Cutter's Mouth', and on the IT committee for the Vit-Buckle Society.

Elaine graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a focus on Immunology and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. She completed her medical degree at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University along with a Scholarly Concentration in Aging. She completed her transitional year internship at the UHS Southern California Medical Education Consortium in Temecula, California where she was awarded Resident of the Year.

She has collaborated with many research mentors in ophthalmology and vision science over the years, which has resulted in numerous research awards, publications, and presentations at regional and national meetings. Her past research projects centered around graduate medical education in ophthalmology, clinical surveys, driving safety, preoperative medical testing and consultations, and biometric formulae.

She has been an active participant in community outreach through free clinics in Rhode Island as well as advocacy work at the local and national level. She has mentored many current and aspiring medical students and continues to engage in medical education through curricular innovation. She is committed to providing compassionate, thoughtful care to patients and their families.

In her free time, she enjoys entertaining and cooking for her friends and family, meeting new people, hiking, watching basketball, and being a tour guide.

Jennifer graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She completed a postgraduate research and clinical training program at Yale University where she pursued developmental cognitive neuroscience research and then attended medical school at the University of California San Diego.

During medical school, she received an NIH UL1 grant for research in ophthalmology and performed basic science research in corneal cell cultures as well as clinical projects in refractive surgery, glaucoma, pediatric ophthalmology and underserved medicine.

In her free time, she enjoys long distance running, hiking, tennis, and taking care of her house plants and two Tonkinese cats.

Alireza graduated summa cum laude, ranking first among 328 students in the class of 2019 at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, where he also earned his Master of Public Health. He completed his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology and was a distinguished member of Iran's International Physics Olympiad team, earning a silver medal at the 42nd International Physics Olympiad in 2011.

Following medical school, Alireza pursued a postdoctoral research fellowship under the mentorship of Robert N. Weinreb, MD with an emphasis on enhancing the diagnostic assessment and monitoring of glaucoma. Leveraging his background in physics and mathematics, his research focused on developing novel mathematical methods and AI strategies to precisely characterize the structural and functional changes associated with glaucoma. Alireza has authored over 60 original articles in the leading vision science and ophthalmology journals, with more than 10 as the first author. His work has garnered numerous research awards, grants, and international presentations. He is also actively involved in the peer review process for several high-impact journals in the field and he mentors students across the disciplines of medicine, physics, and computer science.

In his free time, Alireza is actively engaged in sports, including swimming, soccer, and ping pong. He has served as a lifeguard for nearly seven years and enjoys meeting new people and exploring new activities, with his most recent adventure being skydiving.

Tonya graduated magna cum laude as a Regents Scholar from the University of California Los Angeles with a degree in Physiological Science.  She earned her medical degree at the University of California San Diego, then completed her internship at UHS Medical Education Consortium in Temecula, California.

Tonya’s research interests have included the psychosocial impact of thyroid eye disease, functional sequelae of dysmorphic orbital architecture, and cost utility of ophthalmic procedures. She has served as a study coordinator for clinical trials at UCSD and has presented her research at regional and national meetings, for which she was awarded the Mark R. Levine Grant. With previous experience as a UCLA Writing Center instructor and Editor-in-Chief of UCSD’s art and literary magazine The Human Condition, Tonya is also deeply interested in the humanistic aspect of medicine and medical education.

Her interests include ceramics, painting, running, and audiobooks/podcasts.

Kyle was awarded a Presidential Scholarship to Boston College and graduated with a BS in Physics. He earned an MD and PhD in Bioengineering from UCSD. In medical school, Kyle founded an ophthalmology free clinic to extend eye care to under-resourced populations in downtown San Diego. Funded by a NIH/NEI F30 National Research Service Award, Kyle conducted his PhD research in the lab of Martin Friedlander, MD, PhD investigating microRNA mediated mechanisms of extracellular vesicles from endothelial progenitor cells as a novel treatment for ischemic/neurodegenerative retinal diseases.

Kyle continues to do research with various mentors as a UCSD resident. With Eric Nudleman, MD, PhD, he published multiple studies creating artificial intelligence tools to automate/standardize the quantification of retinal vascular tortuosity and applied these tools to characterize tortuosity in mouse models of ischemic retinopathy. Kyle obtained a Vitreoretinal Surgery Foundation Research Grant with Shyamanga Borooah, MBBS, PhD to investigate the role of smoking tobacco and cannabinoids on extracellular vesicles from retinal pigment epithelium. Funded by a Bright Idea grant, Kyle continues to collaborate with Alex Huang, MD, PhD on proof-of-principle projects fabricating a brain-cooling device to target and modulate neural pathways responsible for regulating aqueous production. Kyle has published numerous articles in competitive peer-reviewed journals.

He is committed to pursuing a career as a physician-scientist, delivering cutting-edge ophthalmic care while managing lab research at the nexus of bioengineering and basic science to make advancements in translational medicine.He spends his free time travelling and spending time with his wife and newborn son.

Christie graduated as a First Generation Holcombe and Goldwater Scholar from the University of South Florida, where she completed a BA in Spanish and BS in Cell and Molecular Biology. She then earned a PhD (DPhil) from the University of Oxford as part of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program.

Her thesis work investigating photoreceptor differentiation and maturation bridged labs between the National Eye Institute and the University of Oxford under the supervision of Drs. Anand Swaroop, Stephanie Halford, and Sumathi Sekaran. Christie completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH investigating the dark adaptive response of rod photoreceptors before obtaining competitive NIH Track-3 MSTP support to pursue an MD at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, a 5-year MD program geared towards training physician-scientists.

For her research thesis at CCLCM, Christie characterized small molecules for hepatic HIF (hypoxia inducible factor) stabilization for the prevention of retinopathy of prematurity at the Cole Eye Institute with Dr. Jonathan Sears, which she presented at the AUPO/RPB Resident and Fellow Research Forum. Her interests include translational research, community outreach, teaching, and first generation and underrepresented in medicine mentorship.

In her free time, she enjoys salsa/bachata social dancing, sewing, cocktail mixology, and exploring new San Diego spots with friends.

Maggie graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in Physical Anthropology. She worked as a clinical research coordinator for the Retina Division at UCLA’s Stein Eye Institute. She then earned her MPH in epidemiology from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Wanting to make an impact in pediatric ophthalmology, Maggie worked as a clinical research associate with Dr. Aaron Nagiel at the Vision Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) where she facilitated the delivery and coordination of patients receiving Luxturna, the first-ever FDA approved gene therapy for Leber Congenital Amaurosis and also helped to establish the first local genetic eye disease registry. She went on to earn her medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine where she continued to pursue research projects that resulted in publications and presentations. She completed her transitional year at Scripps Mercy San Diego.

Maggie’s interests include ophthalmic population health, comparative effectiveness and outcomes research, social determinants of health, and mentorship within ophthalmology. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, pickleball, tennis, tap dancing, classical piano, and trying all of the coffee shops and bakeries in San Diego.

Timothy Kim earned his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and completed his transitional internship at Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego. During medical school, he was a USC Dean’s/Massry Research Scholar and conducted research on models of optic nerve regeneration in the lab of Kimberly Gokoffski, MD, PhD, resulting in several peer-reviewed publications and conference awards.

Before pursuing ophthalmology, he earned his JD from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. He also holds a BA in both Classics and History from UCLA. He is admitted to the New York State Bar.

His interests include interprofessional collaboration and the delivery of safe, high-quality care especially within safety net systems. In his spare time, he enjoys aviation, traveling, and discovering new restaurants.

Anna Mueller earned her medical degree from Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, FL, followed by a transitional year at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, CA. She graduated summa cum laude from Florida International University with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

During medical school, Dr. Mueller completed a dedicated research fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Sanjoy Bhattacharya, studying the molecular basis of glaucoma. Her work has resulted in numerous first-author peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and national presentations, earning research and travel awards from the NIH, BrightFocus Foundation, and AAPOS. She has also served as a peer reviewer for several ophthalmology journals.

A second-degree black belt in karate, Dr. Mueller trained extensively in martial arts and competed at both local and international levels, earning over 50 medals in various championships. She has also taught karate to children and adults, including work with underserved communities. Prior to medical school, she co-created and directed a leadership development program for senior executives of Miami-Dade County government.

Born in Ukraine and raised in Israel, Dr. Mueller is fluent in English, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, and conversational Ukrainian. Outside of medicine, she enjoys spending time with her family, whole-food plant-based cooking, hosting game nights and Eurovision Song Contest parties, and traveling the world—with over 20 countries visited to date.