Humanitarian Efforts
Humanitarian efforts through volunteer work is extremely important to Harvard Eye Associates. Along with activities within the United States, our physicians travel the world to teach and perform surgery on people who have no other resources, and have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to providing medical training and supplies to developing countries.
Dr. Edward Kim
Dr. Edward Kim donates his time regularly to teach medical students and ophthalmology residents at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). During each student’s three years of residency, they focus on learning coursework, understanding anatomy, practicing techniques for surgery, and more.
In recent years, Dr. Kim’s time at UCI has been even more fulfilling as he taught his own son who completed his UCI Ophthalmology residency in 2012 and later joined Harvard Eye Associates in 2012. In addition to his teachings, Dr. Kim has also participated in numerous international eye missions trips to countries such as Haiti, Mexico and Tonga.
Dr. Diana Kersten
Dr. Diana Kersten started off her career spending two years volunteering her surgical skills in underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia. For the past two decades, she has continued to donate her time to cataract clinics in Vietnam and other underprivileged countries around the world.
Dr. Kersten has made a great contribution to help less fortunate men, women and children combat blindness and improve their lives. To date, she has worked in 18 developing countries and has performed thousands of ocular surgeries for those in need.
Dr. John Hovanesian
Dr. Hovanesian has served as Vice President of Programs for the Armenian Eye Care Project since 1997. He travels with Dr. Ohanesian and several other colleagues to Armenia each year to provide medical and surgical teaching, equipment, and pharmaceuticals. The teaching programs have helped Armenian surgeons to become more self-sufficient.
More recently, Dr. Hovanesian has seen great improvement in the fight against a growing wave of blindness in the country. Apart from visits to Armenia, in 2011 Dr. Hovanesian participated in a mission trip to Fiji. During his visit, he treated hundreds of men, women, and children in need throughout the country.
