Advanced Trainees

Janice Kim, MD

Medical School: Harvard Medical School
Residency: Columbia University/ Harkness Eye Institute

Janice Kim grew up in Dallas, Texas, and pursued higher education at Southern Methodist University. After completing college, she attended Harvard Medical School for her medical degree. She then completed residency training at Columbia University/ Harkness Eye Institute. Janice Kim is now a dedicated ophthalmologist training to become a corneal specialist committed to advancing eye care and improving patient outcomes.

Ramy Rashad, MD, MBA

Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine
Residency: Boston Medical Center

Ramy is a Southern California native who is excited to return to the West Coast after nearly a decade of medical training on the East Coast. He is a USC graduate and completed his medical and business education at Tufts University-  graduating with an MD and MBA. He subsequently completed his ophthalmology training at Boston Medical Center and was selected as chief resident in his final year.  He is looking forward to exploring what the Bay Area has to offer!

Helena Gali, MD

Medical School: UC San Diego Shiley Eye Institute
Residency: UC San Diego Shiley Eye Institute

Helena grew up in Los Gatos, California, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in Environmental Engineering. She completed both medical school and ophthalmology residency at the UC San Diego Shiley Eye Institute. 

Her research focuses on examining the impact of electronic medical records on ophthalmology patient care and optimizing the working definition of glaucoma. 

In her free time, Helena enjoys open-water swimming, running, tending to her sourdough starter, and spending time with her partner Lillian, two dogs, and family.

Sitara Hirji, MD

Medical School:  Columbia University
Residency: Columbia University / Harkness Eye Institute

Sitara is from Los Angeles and completed medical school and residency at Columbia University. She is interested in functional outcomes of glaucoma patients and OCT-analysis for glaucoma diagnosis and progression.

Rachel Scott, MD

Medical School: Baylor College of Medicine
Residency: University of Colorado

Rachel will be completing a fellowship in global ophthalmology under the guidance of Dr. Geoff Tabin. She graduated from Yale University with degrees in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and religious studies. She went on to complete medical school at Baylor College of Medicine and then residency at the University of Colorado. In her free time, she looks forward to exploring hiking in Northern California, attempting surfing, and playing tennis.

Fannie Nadeau, MD

Medical School: University of Sherbrooke
Residency: University of Sherbrooke

Dr. Nadeau is a Canadian physician specialized in ophthalmology, who studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sherbrooke, where she also completed a formation in Health Science Education. With a keen interest in Neuro-Ophthalmology, she will dedicate part of her career to medical teaching. Outside of her professional life, she loves exploring culinary arts and engaging in outdoor adventures.

Sachin Rajpal, MD, MS

Medical School: Howard University 
Residency: Howard University Hospital

Sachin Rajpal just completed his Ophthalmology residency and medical school at Howard University and is excited to move to the sunny West Coast from Washington, DC. He completed his undergrad at Carnegie Mellon with a degree in Decision Sciences and has a master's in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown. He also has prior experience working in health economics and a few healthcare startups and is looking forward to being an innovation fellow. Sachin is passionate about improving patient care and outcomes through innovation and technology. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his 2-year-old daughter and exploring the world with her.

Connor Zuraski, MD, MBA

Medical School:  Saint Louis University
Residency: UC San Diego

Connor was born and raised in Chicago before moving to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. In college, he majored in Chemistry and Linguistics. Connor attended medical school and earned his MBA at Saint Louis University before furthering his training in Pathology on the West Coast, completing Anatomic Pathology residency and Neuropathology fellowship at UC San Diego. Connor has a diverse set of interests in Pathology, ranging from diseases of the brain and eye to those in skin and soft tissues, and he began his fellowship in Ophthalmic Pathology at Stanford on July 1. Two fun facts: Connor studied Korean in college, and he has cage dived with great white sharks in South Africa.

Natalia Binczyk, MD, BMSc

Medical School: University of Alberta 
Residency: University of Alberta 

Natalia grew up in Warsaw, Poland. She moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 2008. She completed her Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees, followed by Ophthalmology Residency at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She is looking forward to joining the Ophthalmology Department at Stanford, and exploring California with her husband, Saleem, and her dog Zazu.

Lucie Guo, MD, PhD

Medical School: University of Pennsylvania-Perelman School of Medicine
Residency:​ Stanford School of Medicine

Many at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford will recognize Lucie, who recently finished her residency here. Now she returns to continue her education as a retina fellow. She is from Chapel Hill, NC. She attended undergrad at Harvard and graduated from the Penn MD/PhD program in 2018, where she did her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics in Dr. Ben Black's lab. She did her internship year at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Here at Stanford, she spent her SOAR year in Dr. Stanley Qi's lab in Bioengineering/ChEM-H at Stanford, in collaboration with labs of Dr. Yang Hu and Dr. Sui Wang in ophthalmology, where she began projects in developing genome engineering technologies for ocular gene therapy. She chose Stanford because of its exceptional clinical training and unique support for physician-scientists.​

Jared Sokol, MD, MBA

Medical School: University of Chicago-Pritzker School of Medicine
Residency: Harvard Ophthalmology Residency Program  Eye and Ear 

Jared Sokol graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern California where he was his class’s salutatorian and was elected into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He went on to earn his MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine as well as his MBA with High Honors from the Booth School of Business. While in medical school, he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He recently completed his ophthalmology residency at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Eye and Ear. His recent research has focused on macular hole pathogenesis and treatment, heads-up vitreoretinal surgery visualization, and injection drug use-associated endogenous endophthalmitis. He is ecstatic to join the Byers Eye Institute as a vitreoretinal surgery fellow!

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Class of 2022 group shot

Front row (L to R): Alice Shen, Karen Wai, Michelle Sun, Amal Al-Lozi, and Irmak Karaca

Back row (L to R): Vikram Shankar, Austen Knapp, Randy Brown, Charles DeBoer, and Bryce Chiang

Not pictured: Kanwal Matharu and Suzanne Michalak