Dry Eye Patient Symposium

Dr. Brown is an ophthalmologist in private practice in North Carolina. Her practice areas are Pediatric Ophthalmology, Adult Strabismus, Neuro-Ophthalmology and Forensic Ophthalmology.

Dr. Brown has served on the Board of Directors of the Dry Eye Foundation and as its Medical Advisor since 2019. She has guided DEF’s Eye Drop Safety program and acted as DEF’s liaison with relevant FDA offices since 2022, and continues to steer DEF’s work analyzing OTC ophthalmic drug safety trends.

Dr. Brown earned her MD from Northwestern University, where she completed her ophthalmology residency, followed by a fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus at the University of Michigan. She then served on the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine, where she taught ophthalmology residents, provided clinical care and performed original research for 10 years before moving to North Carolina and joining Cabarrus Eye Center.

Dr. Chiu is an Associate Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at the USC Roski Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. She received her Doctor of Optometry at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry and completed a residency in Cornea and Contact Lenses at the Southern California College of Optometry, where she still serves as an adjunct faculty member. 

Her clinical interests include contact lens fittings and treatment for patients with ocular surface disease and irregular corneas. Her research interests include microbial contamination in contact lens-related solutions and effects of scleral lens wear on the ocular surface and optic nerve. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and the Scleral Lens Education Society, a member of the California Optometric Association, and serves on the Board of Directors at the Dry Eye Foundation. She was named one of America’s Best Eye Doctors by Newsweek and GP Practitioner of the Year by the Gas Permeable Lens Institute.

Dr. Chiu has also served on the Board of Directors of the Dry Eye Foundation since 2023.

Dr. Galor is a Professor of Ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Her areas of expertise are Uveitis, Corneal Diseases, Cataracts and Intraocular Lens. is an expert on ocular surface pain and dry eye, a prevalent condition worldwide, and its relationship with neuropathic ocular pain. She is also an expert in the epidemiology and treatment of persistent pain after LASIK. Dr. Galor has evaluated the efficacy of several therapies in the treatment of neuropathic ocular pain including gabapentinoids, periocular injections, and transcutaneous electrical stimulation. and has also focused on how ocular surface symptoms, including pain, affect the quality of life. She has brought to light the role of nerve dysfunction in dry eye and has developed novel diagnostic and therapeutic metrics to address dry eye symptoms and ocular pain due to nerve sensitization.  She first demonstrated that symptoms and signs of dry eye were often discordant. This observation prompted her to study whether nerve dysfunction was the missing link between the observed discordance. She demonstrated that many symptoms of dry eye, such as burning and sensitivity to wind and light, were shared with chronic pain conditions outside the eye. She tested her hypothesis by measuring nerve sensitivity in the cornea and forearm and demonstrated that individuals with dry eye symptoms and ocular pain had increased sensitivity both locally (on the cornea) and remote to the eye (on the forearm). Given these findings, she has been testing whether strategies that are effective in preventing and treating non-ocular pain could be applied to dry eye and ocular pain, including oral agents (α2δ ligands), injections, and stimulation therapy. She has published her work in high-impact ophthalmology and pain journals. Dr. Galor was named to The Ophthalmologist Power List 2021.

Dr. Jacobs is Faculty on the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service, Mass Eye and Ear, and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Jacobs was the Medical Director, Boston Foundation for Sight, 2006-2018 and prior to that served 15 years as Director, Cornea Service, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

She is a past-President of Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists (CLAO) and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief, Eye and Contact Lens. She has over 90 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of ocular surface disease, corneal ectasia, cornea and refractive surgery, evidence-based medicine, and contact lenses in health and disease. She is recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.  Dr. Jacobs earned her MD from Harvard Medical School and an M.Sc. in Physiological Sciences, University of Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.