Dr. Twa is a clinician scientist and Dean of the University of Houston College of Optometry since 2019. He previously served as a faculty member at the college from 2007 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019, Dr. Twa served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. His undergraduate training in biology was completed at UC San Diego and his clinical doctoral training in optometry was completed at UC Berkeley. He practiced for more than 10 years in the department of ophthalmology at UC San Diego before pursuing a Ph.D. in machine learning, data sciences, and biomedical image analysis at the Ohio State University. Dr. Twa was the Editor in Chief of Optometry and Vision Science from 2016-2023.
Dr. Ostrin is a Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. She then completed the combined OD/PhD program at the University of Houston College of Optometry. Following graduate work focused in accommodative physiology, she went to John Hopkins University for post-doctoral research in low vision and retinal prosthetics. From there, she worked as a Clinician Researcher at the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry, with a focus on myopia and associations with glaucoma. She returned to the University of Houston as faculty to continue her work in myopia and circadian rhythms. In addition to research, Dr. Ostrin teaches gross and ocular anatomy, and has authored a book, Anatomy of the Human Eye: a Coloring Atlas. Dr. Ostrin is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, Gold Fellow of ARVO, and a recipient of the American Optometric Foundation Ezell Fellowship.
Amanda is the Executive Director of Professional Relations at the University of Houston College of Optometry, where she leads initiatives in continuing education, alumni and donor engagement, industry partnerships, and communications. Since joining UHCO in 2013, she has overseen major programs and events, including professional education conferences, industry workshops, and college-wide special events, while advancing strategies to raise the college’s visibility locally, nationally, and internationally. Her background includes program development, compliance, and community engagement, including her previous role at the Harris County Department of Education, where she managed after-school grants and coordinated countywide resources. Amanda is a University of Houston Clear Lake alumna and remains active in volunteer service, contributing her expertise in event planning, grant coordination, and communications to nonprofit and community organizations.
Dr. Ribelayga received his M.S. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000), both in Neuroscience, from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. He then did post-doctoral work at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) (1999-2005). During this time, he used techniques of single cell recording in the retina to examine how circadian clocks within the retina control the light responses of retinal cells. He joined The Ohio State University (OSU) School of Medicine in Columbus, OH as a Research Assistant Professor (2005-2009) and subsequently moved to The University of Texas at Houston (UTHealth) McGovern Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology. Dr. Ribelayga was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2016 and awarded the Bernice Weingarten Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology in 2019. Dr. Ribelayga joined the University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) in 2021, where he is Professor of Physiological Optics and Vision Science. His work has long focused on two areas of research: 1) the role of circadian clocks in the development, maintenance, and function of retinal cells, and 2) the functional architecture of the network of coupled photoreceptors, its plasticity, and the impact of this plasticity on retinal circuit processing and visual perception. Although Dr. Ribelayga's research accomplishments are primarily in basic science, his work may have important clinical relevance and has been continuously supported by NIH.
Dr. Geunyoung Yoon is currently appointed as the Irvin M. Borish Chair Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. He previously served as a faculty at the University of Rochester. His laboratory's overarching research goal is to enhance our understanding of optical and neural mechanisms underlying vision and eye problems by conducting human-based translational research. To achieve this goal, his laboratory has been developing various state-of-the-art technology including advanced ocular aberrometers, wavefront-guided vision correction methods, binocular adaptive optics visual simulator, and in-vivo cornea/anterior segment imaging modalities. These capabilities have been used for studying mechanistic interactions between the optics of the eye and the neural system, vision improvement for patients with corneal pathologies, diagnosis and treatment of corneal diseases, presbyopia correction, and myopia development/control. Dr. Yoon's laboratory is funded by NIH, other non-profit funding agencies, and the industry. He is a recipient of the Dolly Green Special Scholars Award, Research to Prevent Blindness, and David E. Bryant Trust Research Award. He is a panel member for the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health and serves as a member of the Editorial Boards of Frontiers in Ophthalmology, Annals of Optometry and Contact Lenses, and Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society.
