Christopher Teng, MD, MBA, a cataract and glaucoma expert, will join UMass Chan Medical School as the new chair of the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine and Eric Dickson, MD’95, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, announced to the UMass Chan community.
Dr. Teng, who will begin his new role in January, joins UMass Chan from Yale School of Medicine, where he is a professor of ophthalmology and visual science. Prior to that, he was faculty at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mt. Sinai and at NYU Medical Center in New York City. He received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn; completed an internship in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx; did his residency in ophthalmology at NYU Medical Center; and completed a fellowship in glaucoma at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mt. Sinai. In 2023, he received a Master of Business Administration from Yale School of Management.
In his role at Yale, Teng directs the Glaucoma Section and the Glaucoma Fellowship and serves as vice chair for surgical services. He helped establish the Yale Glaucoma Research Group, which has been involved in numerous publications, including a noteworthy paper on gender discrepancies in glaucoma procedures. Another recent study, on the relative paucity of diversity in ophthalmology departments at United States medical schools, published in the journal Ophthalmology, has received considerable attention. Since 2014, he has organized the annual Yale Glaucoma Symposium.
Dean Flotte and Dr. Dickson said Teng has expressed enthusiasm for and commitment to the values of collaboration, teamwork, diversity, equity and inclusion.
In addition to his clinical and academic roles, Teng has been a leader in humanitarian work through Operation Restore Sight, conducting medical missions to Nepal and India to provide care to underserved populations.
Among Teng’s professional honors and recognitions, he received two Secretariat Awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology for special contributions. Teng is also an inventor, and in 2022 received a patent for a contact lens-based apparatus. He also has a YouTube channel, where he publishes surgical and procedural videos.
Flotte encouraged faculty to join colleagues in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences in expressing deep appreciation for the leadership of Johanna Margaret Seddon, MD, ScM, professor of ophthalmology & visual sciences, who has served as interim chair of the department since January 2023.
