COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Professional Relations
Amanda joined the College of Optometry in October 2013 and currently serves as the Executive Director of Professional Relations. Within this role, Amanda oversees various college initiatives, programs, and services including continuing education, alumni relations, industry relations, fundraising, community engagement, communications, and marketing strategies.
Before joining UHCO, Amanda graduated from the University of Houston Clear Lake with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature while working with the Cooperative for After-School Enrichment at the Harris County Department of Education. She managed a countywide after school website and database and monitored local and federal grant compliance for after school programs through the Greater Houston Area. She has served on non-profit boards while also managing websites, organizing events, and seeking grants for volunteer organizations.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Associate
- Director of Residency Programs
Dr. Harper is a Clinical Associate Professor with interests in ocular disease, pediatric eye care, and in improving the educational process for future optometrists. She is a native of upstate New York and moved to Texas in 2017. She completed her undergraduate degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester in western New York. Dr. Harper received her O.D. degree from the State University of New York, College of Optometry (SUNY) in 2007, and completed a Residency in Ocular Disease and Primary Care with the Veterans Administration's Boston Healthcare System the following year. She spent six years as a clinical educator and administrator at the New England College of Optometry, and also held leadership roles in the Massachusetts Society of Optometrists. For her work in membership and advocacy for the profession, she was awarded the Massachusetts Society of Optometrists' Young Optometrist of the Year Award in 2012. Currently, Dr. Harper is a member of the Texas Optometric Association and the American Optometric Association. She joined the faculty at UHCO in 2018, serving first as adjunct faculty and joining full-time in 2020. Dr. Harper serves as UHCO's Director of Residency Programs and is the Director of the Family Practice Service.
Dr. Lan Chi Nguyen obtained her Bachelor of Science in Ophthalmic Medical Technology from the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. Following this, she joined the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she excelled in direct patient care, clinical operations, and teaching. To broaden her skill set, Dr. Nguyen pursued a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree from the University of Texas (Brownsville). In 2006, she became a part of the University of Houston College of Optometry in a research and operational capacity, collaborating closely with research scientists, graduate students, optometry students, and mentoring undergraduate students. Dr. Nguyen furthered her education at the University of Houston and obtained her Doctor of Education (EdD) degree in 2022. Her doctoral focus was on teaching methodologies and engaged learning. Dr. Nguyen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) and a Research Fellow of the Scleral Lens Education Society (FSLS).
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean for Clinical Education
Danica Marrelli received her Doctor of Optometry degree from the University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO), and completed a residency in hospital-based optometry at the Baltimore VA Medical Center in Baltimore, MD. She is a Clinical Professor at UHCO, where she serves as Assistant Dean of Clinical Education and Service Director of the Ocular Diagnostic/Medical Eye Service. In the classroom, Dr. Marrelli teaches in the ocular pharmacology, glaucoma and case-based learning courses. Dr. Marrelli became a diplomate in the ocular disease (glaucoma) section of the American Academy of Optometry in November 2009. She is the vice president of the Optometric Glaucoma Society. She serves on the Education and Communication Committee of the Glaucoma Research Foundation.
Dr. Coates received his PhD in Vision Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, where he studied letter recognition, peripheral visual perception, and crowding, using psychophysics and computational modeling. After postdoctoral appointments in Belgium and Switzerland studying the relationships between crowding, attention, and appearance, he joined the faculty of UHCO in 2017.
His research and teaching interests include spatial vision, color vision, reading, and statistical and psychophysical methods. He is passionate about the use of open source tools for experimentation, analysis, and learning.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Department Chair, Clinical Sciences
David A. Berntsen, OD PhD is an Associate Professor and the Golden-Golden Professor of Optometry at the University of Houston College of Optometry where he teaches in the graduate and professional programs. He is the Chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences and conducts research on myopia, contact lenses, visual performance, and aberrations of the eye. He completed his Doctor of Optometry degree at the University of Houston and a Cornea and Contact Lens Advanced Practice Fellowship, MS, and PhD at The Ohio State University. He conducted the Study of Theories about Myopia Progression (STAMP), a two-year clinical trial evaluating theories of juvenile-onset myopia progression, and is the Principal Investigator of the University of Houston clinical site for the Bifocal Lenses In Nearsighted Kids (BLINK) Study and the BLINK2 Study, a multicenter study sponsored by the National Eye Institute evaluating contact lenses for myopia control. Dr. Berntsen serves on the American Academy of Optometry's Scientific Program Committee.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Clinical Operations
- University of Houston College of Optometry As Associate
Dr. Andrew M. Archila grew up in the Chicagoland area before moving to South Texas. There he obtained his Bachelor of Science and Doctorate in Optometry from the University of Houston College of Optometry. Dr. Archila went on to enjoy a 22-year Naval career attaining the rank of Captain, where he was able to use his administrative and clinical talents. While in an out service Navy program he was able to earn an MBA in Health Care Administration from the City University of New York while concurrently earned a Fellowship in Clinical Administration and Optometric Management at the State University of New York College of Optometry. Dr. Archila has held several naval leadership roles in clinical practice environments, such as Officer in Charge, Executive Officer, and Commanding Officer, which encompassed all aspects overseeing daily operations, budget, and patient care of these healthcare facilities. He was selected as the Navy's Junior Optometrist of the Year in 2003 and the Armed Forces Optometric Society's Navy Optometrist of the Year for 2014. In addition, Dr. Archila has earned several Navy service medals.
Dr. Archila recently joined the University of Houston College of Optometry as Associate Dean for Clinical Operations and as a Clinical Professor.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Professional Studies
Dr. Meier earned a BA at Simon Fraser University studying how eye movement patterns are optimized during and after learning. At the University of British Columbia she obtained a PhD in Cognitive Psychology studying the typical development of motion perception in children, and how this can be impacted by amblyopia ("lazy" eye) or strabismus (an eye turn). Her current work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington investigates how the visual system combines signals across the left and right eyes under different conditions, and how these perceptual patterns are related to visual development and disorder. Overall, her work aims to understand how the visual parts of the brain typically develop, how this development is impacted when a person has prolonged atypical visual experience during childhood, and how perceptual abilities change as a function of treatment success. Her research tools include psychophysics, EEG, MRI, and eye-tracking. We are pleased to have Dr. Meier join the Department of Vision Sciences as an Assistant Professor.
LaSaundra joined the College of Optometry in July 2021. Through 20+ years at the University of Houston, she has served in several business management roles, including Executive Director of Business Operations in the College of Pharmacy, College Business Administrator in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Department Business Administrator in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Mathematics.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research
- Associate Editor for Investigative Ophthalmology
Dr. Frishman currently serves as an Associate Editor for Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, she is on the editorial board of Translational Vision Science and Technology and she is an academic editor for PloS One. Previously she served as Editor-in-chief of the Journals, Visual Neurocience, and Documenta Ophthalmological. Dr. Frishman has served on federal grant review panels, the NIH/NEI National Advisory Eye Council, and she is a fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (FARVO), American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) and a board member of the International Society for the Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
- Therapeutic Optometrist
Dr. Lucy Kehinde attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she earned her B.S. in Integrative Biology with a minor in Chemistry in 2005. She then went on to earn her Ph.D. in Vision Sciences in 2009 and O.D. Degree in 2013 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry in Birmingham, AL. Following the professional program, she completed a Primary Care residency with an emphasis in cornea and contact lens in 2014 at Indiana University School of Optometry in Bloomington, IN.
Dr. Kehinde is now a Therapeutic Optometrist and Optometric Glaucoma Specialist in Houston, TX. After working in private and corporate practice settings, she joined the faculty at University of Houston College of Optometry as Assistant Clinical Professor in 2015. Dr. Kehinde is involved in research studies focusing on ocular surface and dry eye disease, teaches in lecture and laboratory courses, and serves as a clinical attending in Family Practice Service, Dry Eye Center, and the Cornea and Contact Lens Service.
Job Titles:
- Dir, Student Srvcs ( OPT )
- Director of Student Services
Lyle has been with the College of Optometry since February 2013 and is currently Director of Student Services. Lyle completed a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1999 and a Master of Science in Counselor Education/Student Affairs in Higher Education in 2011, both at Mississippi State University.
Outside of UHCO, Lyle has been active in community theatre for the past 23 years, volunteering locally with Baytown Little Theater and Theatre Network of Texas and nationally with the Southeastern Theatre Conference and the American Association of Community Theatres.
Cruz-Wiley, M. Cristina is Adjunct Professor at the College of Optometry at the University of Houston and holds a Ph.D. a M.Ed. in Bilingual Education and Mid Management in Educational Leadership from the University of Sam Houston, and an Advanced Degree in Orthoptics from Orthovision in Bogota, Colombia. Dr. Cruz-Wiley has authored several publications in the areas of optometry and education. He is currently associated with the Colombian Federation of Optometrists, National Association of Teachers of Science, and National Association of Bilingual Educators.
During her Educational Career Dr. Cruz-Wiley has been an Adjunct and Assistant Professor at the University of St. Thomas and at the University of Houston Downtown. She has also participated as a Member of the State Textbook Review Panel and served as Vice-president of The Texas Association for Bilingual Education. His current study focuses on the success of Students learning the patients' language to enhance the quality of the examination process.
As a Houston educator, Dr. Cruz-Wiley has designed and presented Modules for Parental Involvement, has written the ESL curriculum guidelines for secondary grades, and has reviewed and implemented the curriculum guidelines for the Science Curriculum.
Dr. Twa is a clinician scientist and Dean of the University of Houston College of Optometry since June 1, 2019. He previously served as a faculty member at the college from 2007 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019, Dr. Twa served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. His undergraduate training in biology was completed at UC San Diego and his clinical doctoral training in optometry was completed at UC Berkeley. He practiced for more than 10 years in the department of ophthalmology at UC San Diego before pursuing a Ph.D. in machine learning, data sciences, and biomedical image analysis at the Ohio State University. Dr. Twa is also the Editor in Chief of Optometry and Vision Science.
Job Titles:
- Director of College IT Support
- New Director of Information Technology
Mr. Rene Enriquez has joined the college as our new Director of Information Technology (IT) and will lead our college's advance's in instructional technology, research computing, health IT infrastructure, and overall system security.
Mr. Enriquez is an accomplished IT professional who comes to us with over 10 years of senior IT leadership in Higher Education. His background is in Enterprise Applications/Solutions with interests in Enterprise Data Management-Data Modeling/Architecture, and Business Intelligence. He recently completed doctoral coursework in Educational Leadership with research in Latino Student Success.
His passion is in helping people pursue their intrinsic talents toward academic and higher education achievement. He loves spending time with family and friends, traveling and attending sporting events, like Aggie football, Astros baseball, and US Open tennis.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Ishibashi earned his B.S. in Physics at Tokyo Metropolitan University, and Ph.D. in Medicine at Kitasato University, Japan. His long-term interest is the function and dynamics of protein complex at nano scale through physics, single-molecule biophysics, and imaging. He has spent more than 18years using a variety of microscopy techniques, including fluorescence nanoscopy, and electron microscopy. He previously served as Manager of Confocal Microscopy Facility under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen C Massey in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at UTHealth Houston. His intent to educate and support scientists about microscopy led to his joining the University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) as Associate Director of Biological Imaging Core(BIC) in 2022. Dr. Ishibashi is currently working with Dr. Christophe P. Ribelayga on a Brain Initiative project (RF1 MH127343) to map electrical synaptic connectivity in neural networks, while overseeing the BIC with Drs. Alan R. Burns and Nimesh Patel. His goal is to create an excellent platform providing education and assistance on light and electron microscopy including image analysis for the research community. We are excited to have Dr. Ishibashi a part of our Vision Sciences Department as a Research Assistant Professor.
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Assistant Dean for Professional Studies
- Clinical Professor
- Generation Optometrist
Dr. Ralph Herring is a native Texan and third-generation optometrist. He was born and raised in Amarillo and came to the University of Houston to complete his undergraduate as well as Doctor of Optometry degrees. This was followed by a Residency in Family Practice Optometry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. Following one year of private practice in Lubbock, Dr. Herring returned to his alma mater to join the University of Houston faculty where he has now been for over thirty years.
Dr. Herring currently serves as the Assistant Dean for Professional Studies as well as the Director of External Education and Third-Year Clinic Course master... As Director of External Education, Dr. Herring administers the senior level clinical training program which utilizes a network of over seventy affiliated public and private clinics located locally, statewide, and across the country.
Dr. Herring is a Clinical Professor and is a clinical instructor in multiple patient services in the University Eye Institute. He has also served on many college committees.
Dr. Herring became a Diplomate of the American Board of Optometry in 2014. He completed a Master of Healthcare Administration degree from Texas Woman's University in 2001. Professional memberships include the American Optometric Association, the Texas Optometric Association and Beta Sigma Kappa.
Dr. Herring continues his family's strong commitment to volunteer service. He has been a Special Olympics volunteer for nearly 25 years and is now a Regional Clinical Advisor for the Special Olympics Lions Club International Opening Eyes program. Dr. Herring also serves on the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Texas. He has been a member of Lions Club International since 1983, and he currently serves on the Endowment Board of the Montrose Center
received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Brown University in 1987 for studies of visual suppression during eye blinks. He was an NRSA post-doc at UC Berkeley School of Optometry for three years, and then joined the research faculty there. Dr. Stevenson joined the faculty at UH in 1995.
Dr. Stevenson's research concentrates on the visual control of eye movements, with emphasis on visually driven eye movement reflexes, such as for the control of eye alignment. Dr Stevenson is also active in the development of eye trackers based on high magnification retinal imaging in a broad collaboration involving researchers at a number of other institutions.
Job Titles:
- Department Chair, Vision Science
Dr. Coulson- Thomas earned her B.S. in Biomedicine, her M.S. in Biochemistry and PhD. in Molecular Biology at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP). Dr. Coulson- Thomas then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Winston Kao at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cincinnati, and then with Prof. James Fawcett at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. In 2016 she joined UHCO as faculty in Vision Sciences. Her lab takes a unique interdisciplinary approach to study the extracellular matrix in stem cell biology, corneal development and pathology, corneal wound healing, dry eye disease, and inflammation. The current ongoing projects in her lab are 1. Characterizing the role of the extracellular matrix in Meibomian gland development and pathology, 2. Characterizing the limbal stem cell niche and how it supports limbal epithelial stem cells, 3. Understanding mechanisms that regulate corneal wound healing, and 1. Characterizing how the extracellular matrix regulates inflammatory cell infiltration in the aging lacrimal gland.