Meet our Medical Advisor: Sandra Brown MD

About Me

I am an ophthalmologist in practice in North Carolina.  I graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in Chemistry in 1986 and obtained my MD degree from Northwestern University in 1990.  I completed a 1 year medical internship, a 3 year ophthalmology residency at Northwestern, and a 1 year fellowship in pediatric ophthalmology and adult strabismus at the University of Michigan.  After this I took a position on the faculty of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine, where I taught ophthalmology residents, provided clinical care and performed original research for 10 years.  I moved to North Carolina in 2005 and joined Cabarrus Eye Center.

I met Rebecca Petris in an early version of an on-line chat group, some time around 2001.  We were on-line correspondents for several years, finally meeting in person, first in London where Rebecca was living at the time, and then in Florida.

Why I Joined the Board

I was invited to join the Board by Rebecca in 2020.  This was a natural continuation of our multi-year correspondence regarding ocular surface disease and ocular surface pain.

My Work At The Foundation

Since 2022, I have been working intensely on issues related to eye drop safety.  This started with concerns regarding amniotic fluid eye drops, and has expanded to OTC eye drop safety in general.  I have created a large amount of educational content, which can be found at biologiceyedrops.org and eyedropsafety.org.

How You Can Support Us

Please donate! The Dry Eye Foundation needs your financial help to attend national meetings where eye care providers and industry representatives come together in one place.  The networking opportunities are terrific. The Dry Eye Foundation is taking the lead on over-the-counter eye drop safety issues. National meetings are a great way to make our presence known to both Big Pharma and Up-and-Coming Pharma.  Meetings also provide an opportunity for one-on-one interaction with eye care providers.