Career Plans: Glaucoma Fellowship at Duke Eye Center at Duke University 

Dr. Alexandra Castillejos graduated from Columbia University with her BA in Biology and a minor in Anthropology. While at Columbia, she received a Genentech Grant for a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She was the Co-shadowing Program Chair of Columbia University’s pre-medical chapter of the American Medical Students’ Association: Women in Medicine. She earned her MD from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Dr. Castillejos served as President of the Ophthalmology Interest Group at Case Western, where she was instrumental in creating a new ophthalmology shadowing program that allowed students to explore ophthalmology as a specialty early in medical school. She also organized monthly Free Vision Clinics which provided free eye care to underserved populations. Dr. Castillejos is a past-president of Unite for Sight: Columbia Chapter, and led a volunteer trip to Ghana, where the they conducted visual acuity exams, identified patients for surgery and corrective lenses, and conducted research on the interplay between international aide and domestic health infrastructure in Ghana.

Dr. Castillejos’ research during medical school included work in the pathogenesis of primary open-angle glaucoma, as well as visual parameters on NFL quarterbacks. She also worked on angiogenesis with Mass. Eye and Ear faculty member Kip Connor, PhD, exploring the role of the classical lectin and alternative complement pathways in retinal detachment and retinopathy of prematurity. For her work, she was recognized with a Young Investigator Student Fellowship Award for Female Scholars in Vision Research from Prevent Blindness Ohio. She has been published in journals such as The Ocular Surface, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Science Translational Medicine, and Biomacromolecules, and she has presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting and Research Scientific Forum: Prevent Blindness Ohio.