Sandra Wang-Harris, OD, MPH, has joined the UAB School of Optometry as an associate professor. She has worked in numerous developing countries to ensure the availability of eye care to those in need and will now care for Alabama’s vulnerable populations as an educator and healthcare provider.

At the School, Wang-Harris joins Community Eye Care and will be an attending in the Primary Care Clinic as well.

“I look forward to joining a world-class academic institution where my talents can be fully utilized, and I can challenge myself to continue to learn and grow,” she said.

Wang-Harris holds a Doctor of Optometry from The Ohio State University and a master’s in public health from Walden University. She completed a Primary Care residency at UAB in 1998 under the direction of Emeritus Professor Jimmy Bartlet, OD.

Following her residency, Wang-Harris began working at a private practice in Huntsville, AL. After less than a year, she responded to the growing HIV-positive population in Alabama by starting the first eye clinic specifically for patients in Northern Alabama with the disease. Launching the new clinic ignited her passion for working with underserved populations.

The United States entering the war with Afghanistan presented the opportunity to become a World Council of Optometry (WCO) fellow in Kathmandu Nepal. WCO’s mission is to facilitate the development of optometry around the world and support optometrists in promoting eye health and vision care as a human right through advocacy, education, policy development and humanitarian outreach.

“There, I fell in love with eyecare development and teaching optometry while serving the underserved populations of the world,” she said. “Seven countries later, I am back to the United States to encourage, motivate and teach others what I have learned over the last 20 years.”

Wang-Harris has lived in Nepal, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, East Timor (Timor Leste), The Gambia, and Federated States of Micronesia. She has now returned to Birmingham from Kazakhstan in Central Asia to become an optometric educator with a global perspective.

“Optometry is practiced very differently in all these countries—some at a low level and some at a higher level,” she said. “One thing that is the same is that people need care all over the world no matter how optometry is practiced.”

Wang-Harris is currently serving as the Diplomate Chair of the Public Health and Environmental Vision Section of the American Academy of Optometry.

Wang-Harris is married to Kevin Harris, a recently retired diplomatic foreign service officer.  They have one daughter entering college this fall and another who is in middle school.