Director, Professor, Associate Chief of Staff, Associate Professor, Vitreoretinal Surgeon

Dr. Sharon Fekrat is a board-certified, fellowship-trained vitreoretinal surgeon and has been part of the Duke faculty for 22 years since completing her training at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions where she was the first female Assistant Chief of Service on-call for ocular trauma and retinal conditions continuously for 365 days.

Dr. Fekrat has co-authored over 150 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and over 50 textbook chapters. She is chief Editor of Duke Eye Centers's All About Your Eyes, Wolters Kluwer's The Duke Manual of Vitreoretinal Surgery, and both editions of SLACK's Curbside Consultation in Retina. While at Duke, she has held various leadership roles at Duke's VA affiliate, the Durham VA Medical Center, including Chief of Ophthalmology, Interim Chief of Surgery (leading 80 Duke surgeons), Interim Deputy Chief of Staff, and is currently Associate Chief of Staff.

Fekrat sits on the Editorial Board of Retinal Physician, Ophthalmology Times, Ophthalmic Surgery Lasers Imaging Retina, and Retina Times, and is Executive Editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology. She has received many prestigious awards including the Ronald G. Michels Award, Heed Award, Heed-Knapp Award, Rhett Buckler Trophy, AAO's Senior Achievement Award, American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) Senior Honor Award, the Golden Globe Award from the Duke Ophthalmology Residents, and the Distinguished Contributor Award from the ASRS Journal of VitreoRetinal Diseases. She has been selected by her peers to be the Best Doctor in Business North Carolina annually since 2005. Fekrat was selected as one of 150 retina doctors leading retinal innovation by Ocular Surgery News.

Dr. Fekrat has been Director of the Duke Vitreoretinal Surgery Fellowship Program, Director of Ophthalmology Faculty Career Development, and is currently Co-Director of Duke Neurodegenerative Disease Retinal Imaging Repository and Past President of the North Carolina Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. In addition to mentoring medical students, residents, and fellows in clinical research from her large retinal vein occlusion, endophthalmitis, and other databases, Dr. Fekrat is studying Alzheimer's proteins in the aqueous humor of the eye.

She also leads an international multidisciplinary clinical research team evaluating multimodal retinal and optic nerve imaging for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerations and is collaborating with Duke engineers to train a deep learning model for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Their team's work has been featured on ABC, CBS, Fox, Reuters, Newsweek, and several hundred news outlets around the world. She has given testimony on this work to the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.