Dr. Jeannette Wong-Powell

Dr. Jeannette Wong-Powell is a daughter of two nations whose education started in Mexico among the people now targeted by her international work. As a youth, she developed a passion for full-scope optometry. Against the odds, Dr. Wong-Powell earned a Doctorate of Optometry (OD) degree from the University of Houston. In 2012, she was recruited to join the efforts of a US-based ophthalmologist who offered sight-saving diagnoses and procedures in the Yucatan peninsula through short-term medical outreach. At first, her role consisted of providing free consultations and peri-operative care, but the project now gives transformational experience to future doctors and builds partnerships with volunteer/government organizations and a federal hospital. Dr. Wong-Powell’s goals are to model a system in which interprofessional and international cooperation addresses the challenges of visual impairment among the poor, to form exceptional doctors through service, and to disseminate this model via collaboration with researchers and health advocates. Her work was presented at the American Optometric Association meeting, Fulbright Regional Symposium, UIW Research Week, and she has spoken at an international optometry webinar of Latin American countries about the role of optometry in preventing glaucoma-derived blindness.