Low Vision Speaker Series 2025
Presented by:
The Event
This series of three free webinars is designed for optometrists, low vision specialists, ophthalmologists and other vision care practitioners.
Sessions
May 6, 2025, 7-8 PM EST
Geographic Atrophy: Optimizing Patient Care through Research and Innovation
Dr. Marko Popovic MD, MPH, FRCSC
Marko Popovic is a Medical Retina Fellow at the Stein and Doheny Eye Institutes, University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his medical degree at the University of Toronto, Masters degree in epidemiology at Harvard University, and Bachelor of Health Sciences at McMaster University. In residency, he served as Chief Resident in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto. He was awarded the Kensington Eye Institute Award for Excellence in Surgery as the top surgical resident and the Dr. Michael Shea and R. Gordon Kelly Awards for the best senior and junior resident.
Dr.Popovic’s research interests include diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and retinal vein occlusion, as well as vitreoretinal surgery and cataract surgery. He has published nearly 200 articles in the peer-reviewed literature and has been involved in nearly 400 conference presentations at local, national and international conferences.
May 20, 2025, 7-8 PM EST
Inherited Retinal Disease: Clinical Features and New Therapies
Dr. Brian Ballios- MD, PhD, FRCSC, DABO
Dr. Ballios is a fellowship-trained clinician-scientist specializing in medical and inherited retinal diseases. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and holds the J. Ardith Hill – Fighting Blindness Canada (FBC) Professorship in Ocular Genetics Research. He is a clinician-scientist at the Donald K. Johnson Eye Institute (UHN), Director of the Clinical Research Unit, and a staff physician at Sunnybrook and Kensington Vision and Research Centre, where he directs Clinical Electrophysiology. He obtained his MD/PhD from the University of Toronto, with doctoral work in stem cell-based therapies for retinal degeneration. He completed a clinical fellowship in Inherited Retinal Disease at Harvard. His research focuses on retinal disease mechanisms and developing gene and stem cell therapies. He holds funding from FBC, FFB U.S., the Usher 1F Collaborative, and others. His lab studies retinal pathobiology, develops novel therapeutics, and translates technologies into clinical trials.
May 27, 2025, 7-8 PM EST
Treating the Whole Person: Mental Health and Intersectional Considerations for Low Vision Patient Care
Melanie Marsden, MSW RSW
Melanie Marsden is a Registered Social Worker and Traditional Counsellor for Anishinaabe Health in Toronto, where she provides individual counselling, psychoeducation groups, and training. She also offers counselling services at BALANCE for Blind Adults. She completed her Master of Social Work in the Indigenous Field of Study at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Melanie uses an intersectional approach grounded in wholistic teachings. As an Indigenous woman with the gift of being blind, she brings both personal and professional knowledge to her practice, supporting healing and community connection.
She is registered with Alderville First Nation Reserve (Ojibway, through her father), and her mother was Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve. Melanie is a parent of three and a grandmother. Her Indigenous name is D’baa waane waaskane kwe, which means “She Carries the Light,” and her colonial name is Melanie Marsden. She honours collective work, diversity, and full inclusion, and stands in solidarity with racialized communities that have faced—and continue to face—discrimination and other forms of violence.