Julia Haller, MD

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Dr. Julia A. Haller is Ophthalmologist-in-Chief of the Wills Eye Institute, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. She was educated at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, Princeton University, and Harvard Medical School. After a surgical internship at Hopkins and a fellowship in ocular pathology at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital and Cornell Medical Center, she entered the residency program in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Following her retina fellowship at Hopkins, she became Wilmer’s first female Chief Resident in 1986. She joined the faculty as Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins in 1987, became the inaugural Katharine Graham Professor of Ophthalmology in 2002, and was installed as the inaugural Robert Bond Welch, M.D. Professor of Ophthalmology in 2006. At Wilmer, she directed the Retina Fellowship program. She assumed leadership of Wills Eye Institute in 2007.

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Her honors include the Bryn Mawr School scholarship award for valedictorian, National Merit Scholarship, her A.B. in philosophy magna cum laude, Alpha Omega Alpha, a Heed Foundation Fellowship award, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Honor Award, the Rolex Achievement Award (to a past participant in collegiate varsity lacrosse), the Vitreous Society Honor Award, the AAO Senior Achievement Award, the Vitreous Society Senior Honor Award, the Crystal Apple Award of the Young Physicians group of the American Society of Retina Specialists for teaching and mentorship, the Kreissig Award from EURETINA, the President’s Award from Women in Ophthalmology, and a Secretariat Award from the AAO.

Dr. Haller has published over 250 papers in the peer reviewed literature as well as 22 book chapters. One of the world’s most renowned retina surgeons, she has been a visiting professor and lecturer all over the world, with a particular research interest in the repair of complicated retinal detachments, macular surgery, retinal venous occlusive disease, cystoid macular edema, posterior segment inflammatory diseases, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

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Dr. Haller is immediate past president of the American Society of Retina Specialists, Treasurer of the Retina Society, a member of the Executive Committee of the Macula Society, and chairs the Retina Committee for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. She is an editorial board member of the journals RETINA, Retinal Physician, Retina Times, Ocular Surgery News, Retina Today, Ophthalmology Times, EyeWorld, and Evidence-Based Eye Care.

She serves on numerous Scientific Advisory Boards, including Optimedica, Neurotech, Macusight, and Optherion. A past member of the Board of Trustees of the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, she sits on the Board of the American Retina Foundation, the Lions Eye Bank of the Delaware Valley and the Board of Trustees of Princeton University. She and her husband, John D. Gottsch, M.D, the Margaret C. Mosher Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins, have five children.