Celebration Profiles – April 17-21
In honor of our centennial anniversary, we are featuring members of our optometry community — past and present — each day of 2023!
See below for this week’s profiles.
This Week, We Are Celebrating…
Lillian Wang, OD
Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor of Clinical Optometry at Berkeley Optometry. She graduated from the New England College of Optometry, and did her residency in Pediatric Optometry at the University of Houston, College of Optometry. Dr. Wang is involved in both didactic and clinical teaching, and feels fortunate to be involved in the education of the students during all four years of their education. Beginning this fall (2023), she will instruct the fourth years in a newly formed asynchronous course in practice management in the Eyecare Business and Professional Management II course. She is Chair of APME (Association of Practice Management Educators), and was appointed in 2015 by Governor Gerald Brown to the California State Board of Optometry (CSBO), where she has served as President since 2021.Dr. Wang has also worked as an associate optometrist in private practice at Lafayette Optometric in Lafayette, CA since 2004, and continues to keep current on practice and business knowledge and market trends.
Sherrie Stewart
Sherrie is our Development Associate and Advancement Events Manager for the Development and Alumni Relations team at the school.Sherrie previously worked at the Haas School of Business from 2010-2016 as an assistant to the senior dean of instruction. She also organized all of the events for the dean’s office, including, staff morale events, clean up day and holiday parties. Sherrie’s biggest event was the commencement reception with over 200 people.
From 2017-2022, Sherrie worked at the UC Office of the President in UC Health, supporting a team of 6 people, where she fulfilled various administrative duties; such as scheduling and booking conference rooms and ordering food for the staff.
Sherrie is an avid Scrabbler, and loves to play Scrabble with her sisters and brothers. Sherrie is devoted to giving back to her community, for which she just started a non-profit organization. Sherrie also has a farm in Waskom, Texas, that she takes care of with her two sisters and two brothers.
Stephen R. Chun, OD
Dr. Stephen Chun (OD ‘74) is a Clinical Professor of Optometry at the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science. Additionally, he is Founder/Coordinator of UC Berkeley International Optometry Education Programs in China & Korea, and 4th Year External Clinical Rotations & Post-graduate Clinical Fellowship Program at the Eye Center, Beijing Medical University (BMU) & Peking University Health Sciences Center (PKHSC), 1996-2014.Dr. Chun says that, “patients are people who have emotions, feelings and concerns. Educating patients and their families about their eyes, vision and health is a critical element of providing comprehensive primary optometric care. Therefore, I make every effort to oversee a patient’s visual function, eye health and related health care and serve as a patient advocate. It is important to help patients with their questions and give personal attention to their specific vision and eye care needs.”
In addition to teaching, he founded and manages a private practice, the Berkeley Optometric Group, where he takes care of patients (1976-present) and served continuously on the medical staff at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers (Redwood City, Richmond) from 1977-2018. Dr. Chun havs participated as a clinical investigator for studies and patient-based research relating to the effects of systemic and ocular pharmaceuticals on the eye and vision and is embarking on new clinical study on myopia.
Over the years, he has served in leadership roles both on the California State Board of Optometry (1986-1994) as its president and chair of licensing examinations, and on the National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) committees on examination development and clinical skills. Dr. Chun is a founding committee member of the Primary Care Section of the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) (1989-present) and its diplomate program. He stays active as a fellow of AAO. Locally, he is a past president of the Bay Area Optometric Council (BAOC) and the founding chair of its Mentoring/Externship Program (1983-present).
Currently, he serves on the International Optometry Education (IOE) Committee of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO). He continues to mentor both pre-optometry students and UC Berkeley optometry students through the Berkeley-BAOC Mentorship Program (BBMP). “Optometry is stimulating, very rewarding and enriching!”
David Geffen, OD
Dr. David Geffen (OD ‘82) is currently director of optometric and refractive services at the Gordon Schanzlin New Vision Institute-TLC in San Diego, California. He has lectured and written extensively on contact lenses, anterior segment, refractive surgery procedures and intraocular lenses. Dr. Geffen is a contributing editor for Optometry Times and Advanced Ocular Care as well as a past contributing editor to Contact Lens Spectrum and Optometry Today. He is the current past president for the Optometric Cornea and Cataract Refractive Society. He is a past chair of the Education and Meetings committee of the California Optometric Association. Dr. Geffen has conducted dozens of contact lens related studies for many manufacturers and has served as an industry consultant for several companies over the years. Dr. Geffen has published numerous articles as well as given hundreds of lectures.