Eduardo C. Alfonso

Director, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s team of 1,800 staff and faculty members provide more than 290,000 patients with access to leading-edge vision care and telehealth services. Alfonso has led the development of diagnostics and therapeutics which have now become the standard of care for the prevention and treatment of blinding eye diseases. He was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services to serve on the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Eye Council.

EDUCATION: Yale University (BA, MD)

IF I WERE GOVERNOR: I would prioritize the goal of improving access to vision care and prevention. Every resident under the age of 45 years would be provided eye screenings and treatments for non-avoidable diseases.

MENTOR: Edward W.D. Norton, MD, the founding director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

INSPIRING FLORIDIAN: Dr. Bascom Palmer, in the 1920s, was a catalyst in developing vision care in Florida and a founding member the Lighthouse for the Blind, Jackson Memorial Hospital the University of Miami’s Department of Ophthalmology.

MOTIVATIONAL MANTRA
“The acronym TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More.”