20

30

Years of Glaucoma

Experience

Published Articles

& Media

Eyes Saved from

Blindness

Dr. Constance Okeke lives happily with her husband and three beautiful children. 

She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale and trained in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins. She completed her glaucoma fellowship training as a Heed Research Fellow at the prestigious Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of University of Miami. She became a clinician scientist under a National Institute of Health K12 grant at the Scheie Eye Institute of University of Pennsylvania, where she also earned a Master of Science degree in clinical epidemiology. She has practiced ophthalmology with a specialty in glaucoma and cataract surgery since 2001. Her education, training, research, social outreach, and philanthropic missionary work has taken her all over the world including England, Austria, Costa Rica, Ghana and Nigeria.

Dr. Okeke single-handedly pioneered micro-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) at Virginia Eye Consultants in the southern Virginia Hampton Roads region. In 2009, she was the first in the area to perform Trabectome surgery and was the first in the country to combine this advanced technology in glaucoma with the femtosecond laser, allowing the surgery to be performed without a blade.

As an early adopter and pioneer of emerging MIGS technology, she has established a series of firsts. She was the first in Hampton Roads to implant the iStent (Glaukos). She was first in the state of Virginia to perform Viscocanaloplasty with Visco360 (Sight Sciences), the first to perform goniotomy with Trab360 (Signt Sciences), and the first to perform goniotomy with the Kahook Dual Blade (New World Medical). She has given lectures, regularly conducts research, contributes to peer review publications, and writes feature ophthalmology and optometry journal articles. She is known internationally for her expert work in the area of MIGS.

Dr. Okeke is as passionate about teaching as she is about surgery. She has performed over a thousand Trabectome surgeries since 2009 and has shared her expertise with thousands of doctors worldwide. As an official Trabectome trainer, she has presented lectures and led wet labs. Her additional output includes educational videos, tele-seminars, webinars, and personal and group coaching. 

Dr. Okeke has extensive experience in clinical research which she began as a Yale college student. She has designed and implemented numerous clinical trials, as well as published extensively in the professional literature on the subject of glaucoma. She is committed to spreading awareness about glaucoma through education, spearheading campaigns with community organizations, and creating call-to-action initiatives through her writing and public speaking. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a member of the American Glaucoma Society and the Association for Research Vision and Ophthalmology, and also serves as an editorial advisory board member for the Glaucoma Today publication. The Building Blocks of Trabectome Surgery: A Step-by-Step Approach for Patient Selection is her first book.

As a board certified ophthalmologist, Dr. Okeke has for years been educating her patients and community on how to fight against glaucoma blindness by: 1) promoting early detection through screening, 2) furthering understanding of the disease through good doctor-patient communication and 3) stressing the importance of continued patient follow-up to monitor for progression. Dr. Okeke strives to increase awareness of glaucoma because it is such a prevalent disease in a population of people who do not even know that they have it.