Natalie Afshari, MD is Stuart I. Brown MD Chair in Ophthalmology in Memory of Donald P. Shiley, Chief of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, Vice Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Shiley Eye Institute, University of California, San Diego. Prior to this, she was Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Centers of Excellence at the Duke University Eye Center. She received her medical degree from Stanford University and her residency and fellowship trainings at Harvard University, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Dr. Afshari is the recipient of the Senior Achievement Award and the Secretariat Award by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and has been named a Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. She has received the inaugural Top Ten Women in Medicine award by Triangle News, Women Who Mean Business award by San Diego Business Journal, and the Teacher of the Year award at the Duke University Eye Center. She has also been recognized in the Best Doctors in America in each listing for the past decade, and was named in the U.S. News & World Report’s Top Doctors List. Most recently, she has been recognized by the American Medical Women’s Association as the 2019 recipient of its Women in Science award.
Dr. Afshari is the co-editor of a two-volume cornea book titled “Principles and Practice of Cornea”. She is on the editorial boards of six journals: Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, American Journal of Ophthalmology, Survey of Ophthalmology, Eye and Contact Lens, Topics in Ocular Antiinfectives, and Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. She has previously served on the EyeNet editorial board and BCSC Cornea textbook committee. Currently, Dr. Afshari is on the BCSC Lens and Cataract textbook committee and the chair of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery FDA Committee. Her NIH research grant is on the study of Fuchs dystrophy, and she investigates the intricacies of endothelial keratoplasty and regeneration of cornea.