Dr. Coleman is the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation Professor of Ophthalmology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as well as Professor of Epidemiology in the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health. She is Chair for Academic Affairs for the Department of Ophthalmology and Director of the Stein Eye Institute Center for Community Outreach and Policy, overseeing both the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic and the UCLA Center for Eye Epidemiology. Dr. Coleman received her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia, completed her residency training at the University of Illinois in Chicago and finished her fellowship training in glaucoma at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University. She received her doctorate in Epidemiology from UCLA and is a graduate of the Anderson School of Management Executive Program in Management. Dr. Coleman has been actively involved in national outreach programs in ophthalmology. She was elected to the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in 2016, was a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) Committee on Public Health Approaches to Reduce Vision and Promote Eye Health, and Chair of the National Eye Institute National Eye Health Educational Program. She is former president of American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), Women in Ophthalmology, and Los Angeles Society of Ophthalmology. She is a former member of the St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group Board of Trustees, the Helen Keller International Board of Trustees, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Ophthalmic Devices Panel. She is past Chair of the Council for the American Ophthalmological Society (AOS), the oldest ophthalmological society in the United States, and currently serves as their President.
Ophthalmologists
Andrew Young, MD.
Dr. Andrew Young currently serves as a staff physician at the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic (UMEC), bringing eye care to medically underserved communities throughout Los Angeles County. He also serves as a voluntary assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He rejoined the staff in 2022, after previously being with UMEC from 2008-2018. Dr. Young is a board-certified ophthalmologist, in practice for over 15 years. Prior to returning to southern California, Dr. Young was a clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He trained ophthalmology residents and taught medical students, as well as provided patient care in his comprehensive ophthalmology practice. Dr. Young received his medical education through the Program in Liberal Medical Education at Brown University. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, followed by his MD degree in 2001. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He then spent a year at the University of California, San Diego for his clinical fellowship in glaucoma. He later went on to receive his Master of Public Health degree from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in 2016. Dr. Young is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Laura A. Syniuta, MD.
Laura A. Syniuta, MD is the pediatric specialist for UMEC, having completed her fellowship training in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute in 1999. Dr. Syniuta’s mission is to identify and treat the eye disorders specifically related to children, before they interfere with learning and/or self esteem. She is thrilled to have done this as a part of UMEC for over eight years. Her academic background includes a BA from Harvard University and her MD from Albany Medical College. She spent years doing academic eye research at Harvard’s Eye Research Institute in Boston and Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. In addition to UMEC, Dr. Syniuta is the pediatric ophthalmologist at UCLA’s Stein Eye Center in Santa Monica, CA. She has also had a pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus practice for nearly 20 years with the Markman & Wolstan Medical Group in Torrance, CA.
UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic Manager
Margarita Gonzalez
Bio coming soon
Program Coordinator
Pamela Duarte, COA, MHA.
Pamela received her B.S. in Human Biology from the University of California, San Diego and recently received her Master of Science in Health Care Administration from CSU Long Beach. She has extensive clinical, research, and administrative experience and has worn many hats at the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic over the span of 10 years, including preschool vision screener, study coordinator, and data manager. She has humbly enjoyed providing much needed vision care services to the medically underserved communities of Los Angeles, especially our courageous preschool students! Most importantly, she recognizes that there is a great disparity in vision care and education within our communities and it is this inequity that drives her motivation, as a team member of the mobile eye clinic, to create opportunities for our patients to achieve a better quality of life through improved vision.
