Kelly A. Hutcheson, M.D., M.B.A., has been named chair and professor of the Department of Ophthalmology. She also serves as director of ophthalmology for Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth). Prior to joining New York Medical College, Dr. Hutcheson served as chief of ophthalmology at Sidra Medical and Research Center and Weill Cornell School of Medicine in Qatar, where she led the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology. While at Sidra, Dr. Hutcheson focused on humanitarian work, leading a team of 30 people performing medical and surgical outreach in the Dominican Republic. She also led an exploratory trip to Nedjo, Ethiopia, in partnership with Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE) International, providing medical and surgical care to adults and children.
Dr. Hutcheson previously served as associate professor of ophthalmology and director of the Fellowship Research Program in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., responsible for a busy clinical and surgical practice in a tertiary care setting and academic medical center and training more than 40 fellows in pediatric ophthalmology and more than 100 ophthalmology residents and medical students.
While at Children’s National Medical Center, she developed and led the novel program, the Surgical Humanitarian Outreach Center, a philanthropically funded cost center to provide funding for surgical outreach to the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Center for Surgical Care and the Division of Anesthesia for support and fellowship teaching of surgical and anesthesia delivery in developing countries. Dr. Hutcheson was an inaugural member of the Children’s Hospital Sustainability Initiative and was the first chairperson of the operating room green initiative, bringing recycling and waste reduction initiatives to fruition.
Dr. Hutcheson also served as director of pediatric ophthalmology and director of ophthalmology inpatient services at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, where she was elected Faculty Teacher of the Year. She developed and implemented the pediatric ophthalmology curriculum and served as the co-director for the residency program and medical student education. She held several grants and worked in a benchtop laboratory doing genetic analyses on patients with retinopathy of prematurity and in an electrophysiology laboratory doing multifocal electroretinogram studies.
Dr. Hutcheson has published or been a contributing author for more than 40 peer-reviewed academic publications. She served as the section editor for the pediatric ophthalmology content for a major ophthalmology journal for seven years.
Dr. Hutcheson received her medical degree with honors from the University of Virginia and specialty training in pediatric ophthalmology at Emory University. She also holds a Master’s in Business Administration from George Washington University and is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.