Sharon Fekrat, MD, FACS, FASRS is a vitreoretinal surgeon and accomplished educator, clinical researcher, and administrator. Dr. Fekrat's achievements have been recognized in "best doctors" lists - Business North Carolina, Newsweek, Ocular Surgery News, and was inducted into Retina Hall of Fame. She was awarded AAO Secretariat and Achievement Awards, ASRS Rhett Buckler trophies and Senior Honor Award. She was first woman to receive Ronald Michels Fellowship Foundation Award! After graduating as high school valedictorian, she received her BS from Georgetown graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and spent one year at Oxford in England. She graduated from University of Chicago School of Medicine, recognized by Alpha Omega Alpha. She completed ophthalmology residency and retina fellowship at Wilmer and was Assistant Chief of Service on-call handling trauma/emergencies for 365 days before being recruited to join Duke Ophthalmology Faculty. She received Faculty Instructor of the Year from Duke ophthalmic technicians, Golden Globe Award from Duke ophthalmology residents, and ASRS Crystal Apple Award. She founded and leads iMIND multidisciplinary clinical research team evaluating multimodal imaging for diagnosis of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerations and is collaborating to train machine learning models. Her team published first paper demonstrating that a machine learning model can identify Alzheimer's using retinal images. Her team's work has been featured on ABC, CBS, Fox, Reuters, Newsweek, etc. She and her mentees have been recognized by VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation, Machemer Resident Research Award, RPB Medical Student Eye Research Fellowship, VBS BullDogger and Academic Awards, WIR Travel Grant, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, and more. She was keynote speaker at RPB Vision Research speaking on Artificial Intelligence and Retina. She gave testimony to US Senate Special Committee on Aging. She has co-authored >210 publications and >50 textbook chapters. She is Editor of All About Your Eyes, Duke Manual of Vitreoretinal Surgery, Curbside Consultation in Retina, and Duke Journal of Case Reports in Ophthalmology. She's on editorial board of Retinal Physician, Ophthalmology Times, OSLI Retina, Retina Times, and Executive Editor of AJO. She was EyeNet Retina Section Editor and Ophthalmic Pearls Co-Editor. She is a natural leader and administrator and has been Director of Duke Medical Student Ophthalmology Education, Director of Duke Vitreoretinal Surgery Fellowship Program, Director of Faculty Mentoring, President of NC Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, Vice Chair of Duke Clinical Sciences APT Committee, and is Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs. She was sole physician on Steering Committee for Strategic Education on Research, Translation, Commercialization, advising Duke Board of Trustees. At Duke's VA affiliate, she has served as Chief of Ophthalmology, Interim Chief of Surgery (leading 80 Duke surgeons across surgical specialties), and is currently Associate Chief of Staff of Microsurgery.
