Career Plans: Oculoplastics Fellowship at Texas Oculoplastics Consultants Eye and Face

Dr. Makayla McCoskey earned her BS with High Distinction in Biomolecular Science from the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate, she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and served as president of the Unite for Sight Michigan Chapter. She went on to earn her MD from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, along with Certificates in Medical Education and Clinical Neuroscience. She was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. While at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. McCoskey served as the student representative to the School of Medicine Curriculum Committee, the chairperson of the Ophthalmology Student Interest Group, and an executive board member of the Penn Sight Savers Glaucoma Screening Clinic. She has been recognized with the Charles A. Oliver Memorial Prize, awarded to the graduating student who achieves the highest record of performance in Ophthalmology, as well as the American Medical Women’s Association Glasgow-Rubin Academic Achievement Award, awarded to a woman graduating first in her medical school class.

During medical school, Dr. McCoskey pursued several research endeavors, including participating in a number of projects under the Primary Open-Angle African American Glaucoma Genetics Study. She was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Clinical Neuroscience Research Grant to study the clinical association between primary open-angle glaucoma and cognitive function, and this work was recognized with the Stuart L. Fine Ophthalmology Research Prize. Dr. McCoskey also has a strong interest in the scholarly study of medical education, and as a medical student she collaborated on research evaluating the effects of primary call preparation and responsibilities in first-year ophthalmology residents. Her work has been published in journals including Journal of Academic Ophthalmology, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Journal of Neuro-Oncology, and Ethnicity & Health. She has also presented her research at the American Glaucoma Society Annual Meeting, the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting.