Celebration Profiles – December 11-15
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…

Angela Shahbazian, OD, FAAO
Dr. Angela Shahbazian graduated from the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science at UC Berkeley and completed a residency here in Primary Care and Community Health. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Berkeley where she teaches several courses including Advanced Procedures in Ocular Disease and Ocular Manifestations of Systemic Disease.Dr. Shahbazian sees patients with fourth-year optometry students at the West Oakland Health Center, and is a co-advisor for the Primary Care and Community Health Resident at Berkeley. She also lectures nationally on ocular and systemic disease, and has a special interest in ocular disease and public health. Dr. Shahbazian is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. During her free time, she enjoys hiking and swimming with her family.
Dr. Shahbazian’s efforts led to the establishment of our inaugural influenza vaccination clinic in 2023. Click here to read about Dr. Shahbazian’s role in the organization and execution of our first ever flu vaccine clinic!

Vincent Michael Patella, OD, FAAO
Vincent Michael Patella, known professionally as Mike Patella, is an American developer of automated ophthalmic diagnostic devices and a Berkeley Optometry alum. He retired from Carl Zeiss Meditec in 2018 after serving as Director of Clinical Research, Director of the Glaucoma Business Unit, Director of New Business Development, and Vice President of Professional Affairs. He continues as a consultant to Carl Zeiss Meditec and other companies, and also as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology.Dr. Patella was born in 1946 and spent his childhood in South Central Los Angeles. He holds bachelor’s degrees in physics from Pomona College, meteorology from Texas A&M University, and vision science from UC Berkeley. He received his OD degree from the UC Berkeley Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science and practiced optometry part time for twenty years in Walnut Creek, California.
Mike began his career as a US Air Force meteorology officer, and after completing his military service worked as an aerospace engineer on a NASA manned spaceflight project called Skylab. He left aerospace engineering in 1974 in order to enter optometry school in Berkeley, and in early 1975 also joined a Berkeley startup called Humphrey Instruments. Humphrey had been founded that year by Nobel Laureate, Luis W. Alvarez. Humphrey was later purchased by Carl Zeiss and came to be known as Carl Zeiss Meditec.
Dr. Patella worked for more than four decades at Humphrey and Zeiss on the invention and development of automated ophthalmic diagnostic instruments, including automated refractors and lensometers, contact lens fitting devices, perimeters, and automated imaging systems, including the first commercially produced optical coherence tomography system.
Mike and his lifelong collaborators, Anders Heijl and Boel Bengtsson, both of the University of Lund, formed the nucleus of the international team that developed the Humphrey perimeter, beginning in 1982 and continuing for over 40 years. Together, the team invented all applications resident on the Humphrey perimeter during that time.
Together, Heijl, Bengtsson and Patella also have written five editions of the Humphrey Primer, which may be the most widely distributed textbook in all of ophthalmology and optometry. The 2021 fifth edition has been translated into Chinese and Russian. Translations into French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese are under way. In 1999, Mike also co-authored the second edition of Automated Static Perimetry, with Professor Douglas Anderson of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
Dr. Patella is a member of the American, European, and Asia-Pacific Glaucoma Societies and co-founded of the Optometric Glaucoma Society. He has been listed as co-inventor on six US and internationally-registered patents. He is semi-retired but serves on the Adjunct Faculty of the University of Iowa’s Department of Ophthalmology and as a consultant to industry.

Angeline Yang, BS
Angeline is a vision science PhD student born in Long Island, NY. She lived in Shanghai and Beijing, China before moving to Berkeley for undergraduate school. Angeline majored in Cognitive Science at UC Berkeley. During her time as an undergraduate, she studied abroad at the University of Hong Kong where she interned in Dr. Janet Hsiao’s lab and learned eye-tracking while studying cultural differences in face perception. She later completed her Cognitive Science honors thesis, with Dr. Susana Chung as her advisor, on eye movement and the Face Inversion Effect during expression recognition.According to Angeline, what is perceived visually makes up such an important part of the human experience and she wants to understand more about how this experience is constructed, whether through the behavior of our eyes or of our brain, especially in the context of movement and exercise. “With such a focus on the interdisciplinary nature of vision and perception, the VS program here is the place to be!” – Angeline
Angeline is currently using eye tracking to examine how eye movement differs between upright and inverted expression recognition, ultimately, to illuminate how holistic versus parts-based processing of faces is characterized by eye movement patterns. She is also continuing to help with the project from her time in Hong Kong on cultural differences in the effect of mask use on face processing.
Angeline hopes that through the study of our visual system and how it relates to the human experience, she will be able to shed light on ways that can foster understanding between individuals of our diverse experiences. She is looking forward to exploring all the different areas of study under vision science and finding a topic that she would like to research during her time here! Angeline enjoys martial arts, webnovels, photography, and travel.

Evan Toy, BS
Evan Toy is a third-year Doctor of Optometry (OD) student and a previous Student Ambassador (2022-23). He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washington, earning a BS in Public Health in 2021. During undergrad, he worked in a couple of different optometric offices with unique settings. Evan believes that vision is our most important sense, and thus comes the opportunity to leave a long-lasting impact on every patient’s life. His top priority in a career in optometry would be to help others live their life in its fullest and purest form, and to provide them with the tools to be able to see the world around them effortlessly.Evan chose the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science because of the small, and tight-knit class size, as well as the world-renowned clinical education and on-campus resources that UC Berkeley has to offer. Previously a Student Ambassador, Evan now currently serves as a student member on the Admissions Committee, where he gets the rewarding experience of participating in the selection process for the next class of Berkeley Optometry. After graduation, Evan is excited and determined to run his own private practice, back in his community of Seattle.

Liza Shevchuk, BA
Liza (pronounced Leeza) was born in Anapa, Russia, and immigrated to the US with her family when she was less than a year old for the chance of a better future. She is proud of her Russian and Ukrainian heritage! She grew up in Antelope, CA (near Sacramento), and graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a BA in Anthropology. She has been working in our Communications department since 2022, which has inspired her to continue her education. She is now pursing an MS in Communication at Purdue University.As Communications Coordinator, Liza takes on a diverse variety of projects – ranging from website design in HTML, to production of official email communications and newsletters such as the Dean’s Weekly Update, Alumni Newsletter, and more. Liza provides photography, design, and manages all of the school’s social media accounts. She has also been responsible for organizing and posting these weekly centennial profiles!
By thoughtfully crafting these communications, Liza aims to build a sense of community and connectedness within our school. She is also responsible for representing our school and its brand to the general public, as well as marketing for fundraising and student recruitment. In addition, Liza serves as the Communications Representative on the Council for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB). Earlier this year, she joined Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) on their annual trip to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua to help provide free eyecare to Nicaraguans in need.
Outside of her professional life, Liza enjoys writing and producing music, going to concerts, dancing, and hiking! A fun fact about Liza is that she started taking college classes at 15 years old, graduated high school at 16, and transferred to Cal as a third-year, at 18 years old. Now at 24, she hopes to continue in her communications career, and serve Optometry & Vision Science to the best of her ability!
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