Speakers
Stephanie Schmiedecke
Chief of Low Vision Services / Director of Vision Rehabilitation Center & Residency Programs Diplomate, Low Vision Rehabilitation / Professor
Dr. Stephanie Schmiedecke is a graduate from the University of Houston, College of Optometry, where she also obtained her residency degree in low vision rehabilitation. In 2014, she received her Diplomate in the American Academy of Optometry, a designation less than 100 doctors in the world have earned.
She has been an invited lecturer for various engagements, including national and international meetings to teach doctors about low vision and vision loss. She also has spoken at many local events here in our local communities.
In the VA, Dr. Schmiedecke has been recognized as an expert in low vision. She was called upon to develop low vision programs across Florida and was a contributing author for continuing education in the national VA Employee Education System (EES). She spearheaded the 4th VICTORS program in the country, the Visual Impairment Center to Optimize Remaining Sight, in 2006. This interdisciplinary, outpatient program was the first of its kind in the southeast. She has received numerous awards for the program that trained optometry students and residents as well as ophthalmology residents from the University of Florida. Other low vision programs she has developed include Shands UF Hospital, and here at RSO.
Dr. Schmiedecke served as Residency Director at the Lake City, FL VAMC and Extern Site Coordinator for five colleges of optometry. Just recently, she developed the low vision rehabilitation residency at RSO where she serves as the coordinator. She holds memberships on both state and national low vision committees and received her American Board of Clinical Medical Optometry in 2010. Dr. Schmiedecke has also served as an examiner for the National Board of Optometry.
Currently, she is a tenured Professor and Chief of Low Vision Services at the Rosenberg School of Optometry. Her passion is to increase awareness and education about vision loss and the visually impaired.
Travis Real
Health Sciences Liaison Librarian
Travis Real is the current Health Sciences Liaison Librarian for the University of the Incarnate Word School of Optometry. He has held similar posts at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Permian Basin and El Paso campus, respectively. He is excited about helping with AI research and evaluation at the academic level in the near future.
Yukata Maki
Chief of Binocular Vision & Vision Therapy Clinic / Associate Professor
Dr. Yutaka Maki is the Chief of Binocular Vision and Vision Therapy Service and an Associate Professor at the University of the Incarnate Word, Rosenberg School of Optometry. His responsibilities include didactic teaching in Optics, Clinical Optometry, Vision Therapy, and Strabismus/Amblyopia courses and clinical supervision in the Pediatric and Vision Therapy clinics.
In the spring of 2014 Dr. Maki was given the Legacy Teaching Award by the University of Incarnate Word and the Distinguished Teacher Award by the UIW Rosenberg School of Optometry. Dr. Maki became a Fellow of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development in the fall of 2015.
Dr. Maki grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from University of Massachusetts with bachelor's degrees in physics and biology. He taught high school math in New York City while completing a master's degree in education. He graduated from the State University of New York College of Optometry where he also completed the Dr. Irwin B. Suchoff Residency Program in Vision Therapy and Rehabilitation.