Visual Field Assessment and Disability Evaluation (2025)
Chapter: Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
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Appendix C
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Roger Lewis, M.D., Ph. D (Chair), is a professor of emergency medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a senior medical scientist at Berry Consultants, LLC, a group that specializes in innovative clinical trial design. Dr. Lewis is the senior statistical editor for JAMA and editor of the JAMA series entitled “JAMA Guides to Statistics and Methods.” His expertise centers on adaptive and Bayesian clinical trials, including platform trials; general clinical research methodology; data and safety monitoring boards; and the oversight of clinical trials. Dr. Lewis was formerly the chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center and a senior physician in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He has authored or coauthored more than 270 original research publications, reviews, editorials, and chapters. Dr. Lewis is a past president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and served on the board of directors for the Society for Clinical Trials. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Society for Clinical Trials. Dr. Lewis is an active member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Robert Chun, OD, is an associate clinical professor at the State University of New York College of Optometry. He has been a low vision specialist and clinician educator since 2012. Dr. Chun has been devoted to understanding the functional aspects of vision loss experienced by those affected by retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease. Currently, his studies seek to advance our understanding of how and when various aspects of functional endpoints are affected by disease progression among those living with low vision.
Dr. Chun has served as a coinvestigator and collaborator in National Eye Institute–funded studies involving low-vision technologies. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. Outside of teaching in the classroom, clinic, and research laboratory, Dr. Chun has extensive experience working with visually impaired athletes through his role as a vision impairment classifier for the International Paralympic Committee.
Stuart Gardiner, Ph.D., is a senior scientist at Devers Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon. His primary research involves developing, evaluating, and learning from advances in diagnostic testing for glaucoma for the purposes of disease detection, assessing and predicting the rate of disease progression, and uncovering the underlying pathophysiological processes. In particular, Dr. Gardiner has focused on functional testing of the visual field using automated perimetry; blood flow within the retina and optic nerve; and structural evaluation of the optic nerve head. He has been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the National Eye Institute since 2011, with grants related to functional testing and retinal blood flow. Dr. Gardiner is a gold fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He served as an advisor to Haag Streit at a one-time meeting in July 2024 and received compensation for those services.
Eve Higginbotham, SM, M.D., ML, is a professor of ophthalmology and senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics. She has also served for a decade (2013–2024) as the inaugural vice dean for inclusion, diversity, and equity at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Higginbotham continues to publish on topics in the fields of ophthalmology, organizational culture, health policy, and health equity. She is an elected and active member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and she recently completed a six-year term (2018–2024) as a member of the NAM council. During this time, she chaired the NAM finance committee and served on the National Research Council and as NAM liaison to the National Academy of Sciences investment committee. A glaucoma specialist, Dr. Higginbotham holds degrees in chemical engineering, medicine, and law.
Tianjing Li, Ph.D., is a professor of ophthalmology and epidemiology at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The primary focus of Dr. Li’s research is to develop, evaluate, and disseminate rigorous methods for comparing health care interventions and to provide trustworthy evidence for decision making. She has garnered an international reputation as a leader in comparative effectiveness research (clinical trials, systematic review, network meta-analysis) and patient-centered outcomes research.
Dr. Li has extensive experience in applying these methods in ophthalmology and optometry. She serves as a coeditor-in-chief for the journal Trials; a methodological editor for Annals of Internal Medicine; the reviews editor for JAMA Ophthalmology; an associate scientific editor for the second edition of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions; a section editor for the book Principles and Practice of Clinical Trials; and is author and editor for the second edition of the Textbook of Epidemiology. Dr. Li is an elected fellow of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology and served as the society’s president from 2022 to 2023. She has served on two previous National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees.
Julius Oatts, M.D., is an associate professor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Previously, he created and led the childhood glaucoma clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Oatts has clinical expertise in the medical and surgical management of childhood glaucoma. His research expertise includes childhood vision screening for preventable vision loss and evaluating new diagnostic technologies in pediatric ophthalmology. Dr. Oatts is a member of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS), the American Glaucoma Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the North American Pediatric Glaucoma Society. He serves as vice chair of the AAPOS professional education committee and technology committee.
Eric Singman, M.D., is a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland (UMD) School of Medicine. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist with fellowship training in neuro-ophthalmology. Before joining UMD, Dr. Singman founded and directed the Wilmer Clinic for Vision Concerns after Traumatic Brain Injury and cofounded the Wilmer Genetic Eye Disease Center at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. His research interests have focused on optimization of delivery of eye care, the impact of brain injury on vision, and the visual sequelae of Ehler’s Danlos syndrome. Dr. Singman served on the medical advisory panel of BravoVictor (the blind veterans’ foundation for both the United Kingdom and United States) from 2022 to 2024. He also consults as a district medical adviser for the U.S. Department of Labor Federal Occupational Health in evaluating visual system disability claim reports for federal employees with work-related injuries. Dr. Singman is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine of the United Kingdom and a member of the North American Neuro-ophthalmology Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Military Surgeons of the United States.
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