Dr. Francis is a board-certified ophthalmologist with specialty training in ophthalmic oncology: the care of people with cancers in, on, and around the eye. She understands the impact that cancer can have on patients and their families. Her goal is to provide the best treatment for each patient with the fewest side effects.

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, we have the advantage of working closely with a team of specialized doctors such as radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, pathologists, neurologists, and pediatric oncologists to create a coordinated plan of care for our patients.

Dr. Rajeev Muni is a staff vitreoretinal surgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital, The Hospital for Sick Children and the Kensington Eye Institute and is the Vice-Chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, University of Toronto. Dr. Muni completed his medical degree at McMaster University, followed by a residency in ophthalmology and fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the University of Toronto. This was followed by a fellowship in pediatric vitreoretinal surgery at the University of Southern California and a Masters degree in clinical epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Muni leads an active clinical research program and has a keen interest in randomized clinical trials, particularly in vitreoretinal surgical conditions. Dr Muni and his team conducted the PIVOT randomized trial comparing pneumatic retinopexy versus pars plana vitrectomy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment repair. He has also been instrumental in novel research assessing the integrity of retinal reattachment with various surgical approaches using multimodal imaging and has published extensively on this topic in the highest impact journals in our field. Dr. Muni has over 150 peer-reviewed publications with 50 in 2023 alone.

Dr. Muni has won several awards for his research including the 2018 Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Innovator of the Year Award. In 2021 he won the inaugural Kreissig Award for Excellence in Retinal Surgery from the Association of Vision and Research in Ophthalmology, in 2022 he won the inaugural Rosario Brancato Retina Award from Italy and in 2023 he won the Retina Research Foundation/Kayser Global Award from the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology, the highest honor given by this association for research. In 2023 he was also awarded one of five inaugural Presidential Honor Awards from the American Society of Retina Specialists.

Dr. David Sarraf is Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA and member of the Retinal Disorders and Ophthalmic Genetics Division. He has published approximately 350 peer reviewed research papers, case reports and reviews and has authored close to 30 book chapters and is co-author for the second edition of the Retina Atlas and is Section Editor for the 7th edition of Ryan’s Retina.

Dr. Sarraf is a world leader in the field of advanced retinal imaging and has delivered over 400 invited lectures at various meetings worldwide including more than a dozen endowed and keynote lectures. Specifically, Dr. Sarraf was awarded the LuEsther T Mertz Lectureship Award by the Macula Foundation in 2018, the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology Keynote Lecture by the Canadian Ophthalmological Society in 2020 and the 2023 Richard Greene Award and Lecture by the Macula Society in 2023.

Aleksandra V. Rachitskaya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Case Western Reserve University’s Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and a member of the vitreoretinal faculty at Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute. She specializes in the diagnosis and management of medical and surgical retinal diseases. Prior to her appointment at the Cleveland Clinic in 2014, Dr. Rachitskaya served on faculty of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida, as the Chief Resident and Director of Ocular Trauma. An active researcher, Dr. Rachitskaya is involved in numerous clinical trials, including studies on diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. In June of 2015, Dr. Rachitskaya and her colleagues at the Cole Eye Institute completed the first successful Argus II implant in the state of Ohio. Dr. Rachitskaya regularly publishes on her research and she has given numerous national and international presentations on her work. She is an active member of American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Society of Retina Specialists, the Retina Society, and the VBS Society. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement Award and the American Society of Retina Specialists Senior Honor Award. Dr. Rachitskaya completed an internship in internal medicine at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and earned her medical degree at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. During medical school, she spent a year at the National Eye Institute as a National Institutes of Health-Howard Hughes Institute Research Fellow and earned an induction into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. In 2016 Dr. Rachitskaya was the recipient of the prestigious Case Western Reserve University Young Alumni Award.

ovanni Staurenghi is currently Professor of Ophthalmology, Chair of the University Eye Clinic, Director of the University Eye Clinic Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences “Luigi Sacco” at Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan, Italy, and Director of the Residency Program at the same university. He was awarded his degree at the University of Pavia, Italy, in 1986, and completed his residency at the University of Milan in 1990. He was a research fellow at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, from 1991 to 1992 and visiting scientist at the same institute from 1992 to 1993. He became Associate Professor in 1999 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2007.

Professor Staurenghi is a scientific advisor of the Digital Angiography Reading Center and Visiting Professor and consultant for the Belfast Ophthalmic Reading Center at the Central Angiographic Resource Facility. He is also a member of the editorial board of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science and acts as a reviewer for many international scientific journals. He is an ARVO Silver Fellow.

Professor Staurenghi’s research, publications and lectures have an important bearing on retinal degeneration; in particular, his work is focused on different types of imaging and treatment. He has been a member of ARVO since 1988, the Macula Society since 2004, the Ophthalmic Photographers’ Society since 2006, and the AAO since 2007. He was part of the Annual Meeting Program Committee for ARVO from 2008 to 2010.