HMS Faculty Note - Shah, Kloek, Simmons, Pierce

To HMS Faculty:

I am very pleased to announce two new roles for one of our rising young faculty members, Dr. Ankoor Shah. In addition, we have had a change in leadership of the Electroretinography Service and Berman-Gund Laboratory.

In the first instance, Ankoor will become the Director of Ophthalmic Medical Student Education at HMS, beginning July 1, 2014. Ankoor assumes the directorship from Dr. Simmons Lessell, the champion of our medical education program since 2004. I am delighted that Simmons will continue in his clinical and teaching capacities.

At the same time, Ankoor is succeeding Dr. Carolyn Kloek in the role of Editor-in-Chief of the Digital Journal of Ophthalmology (DJO), having served as an associate editor for the last several years. Aaron Savar, MD, (residency class of ’08 and now in private practice in Beverly Hills, California) has also remained very active on theDJO, and will continue to do so as the DJO’s Science Editor.

Ankoor attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he received his MS (with honors) in Neuroscience, an MD, PhD in Medicine and Neuroscience, and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society. He completed his Ophthalmology residency training here at HMS in 2009 and was selected Chief Resident for the following academic year. Ankoor went on to complete a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus as a Heed Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. Currently, he is an Instructor in Ophthalmology at HMS and on the medical staff at Children’s and Mass. Eye and Ear.

Ankoor has been an outstanding leader of the department’s educational program and a highly regarded teacher and mentor. He was selected recipient of the 2012 Robert A. Petersen Resident Teaching Award (Children’s Hospital) and was nominated last year for an HMS Excellence in Mentoring Award (2012-13). Ankoor has also been very active on the administrative front, serving on the Ophthalmology Residency Steering Committee, leading initiatives to improve residency training, building the department’s trauma and inpatient consult service at BWH, and establishing an eye trauma service at Boston Children’s Hospital. In addition to his editorial role for the DJO, Ankoor also serves on the advisory group for our new department clinical newsletter, Eye Advisory.

As most know, Simmons has led the Medical Student Education program with distinction for the last decade. While some academic institutions have downsized or eliminated their ophthalmology programs, Simmons, in collaboration with Dr. Deborah Jacobs who continues as Director of the Ophthalmology Sessions for the HMS Core Medicine Clerkship, has transformed the HMS Ophthalmic curriculum and radically redesigned the elective program to emphasize faculty mentorship, conference participation, and emergency room training – to the delight and rave reviews of students and faculty. I want to extend our wholehearted thanks to Simmons for his long-standing dedication to making our program a national model of excellence, as well as congratulate him on receiving the 2014 HMS William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. We are very happy that he will maintain his clinical and teaching roles in the department and continue to inspire us all with his legendary wit and wisdom!

Carolyn has dedicated herself to the viability and growth of the Digital Journal of Ophthalmology since becoming its editor-in-chief in 2006 - during which time she has become busy with a multitude of other new responsibilities including Associate Chief for Practice Management, Director of the HMS Residency Program, site director at Mass. Eye and Ear Longwood, and Chief of the Division of Ophthalmology in the BWH Department of Surgery. The DJO will remain dear to her, no doubt, and we continue to look forward to her contributions on all fronts.

Please join me in congratulating Ankoor and in thanking Simmons and Carolyn.

In a different vein, I can confirm that Dr. Eric Pierce is now the Director of the Mass. Eye and Ear Electroretinography Service as well as the Berman-Gund Laboratory for the Study of Retinal Degenerations. We are grateful to Dr. Eliot Berson for his seminal contributions over the years, and continue to work with him on the transition plans. Research, teaching and patient care continue, unabated, in this area.

Joan W. Miller, MD, FARVO
Henry Willard Williams Professor of Ophthalmology
Chair, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
Chief of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and
Massachusetts General Hospital