Dr. Tareq Nabhan (Associate Clinical Professor) studied chemistry at Pittsburg State University and focused on chemical education at the graduate level at the University of Kansas. He taught at Kaplan Test Prep before starting optometry school in 2008 at UMSL. He held leadership positions as an optometry student and graduated with distinction. He soon joined the college as a part-time faculty member in 2014 and transitioned to full time in 2019. Dr. Nabhan is lead attending physician of the optometry unit at Affinia Healthcare, developed a novel telehealth course, guided the rollout of UMSL’s first-ever teleretina services, and is actively funded for his research seeking to democratize eye care through validated hardware-software telehealth and AI solutions. In 2018, he received a patent for a novel ophthalmic artificial intelligence solution by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and was selected to UMSL's National Academy of Inventors in 2024. Dr. Nabhan is a Special Government Employee (SGE) for the Department of Health and Human Services - Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (HHS-CMS) MEDCAC, is a member of the Johns Hopkins Medicine RReSTORe Consortium in regenerative medicine in glaucoma, and was selected to the 2020 class of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity International (VOSH/I), Board of Directors with the St. Louis Optometric Society (SLOS), on the clinical advisory panels of several national and international non-governmental organizations, and has co-led more than 25 humanitarian eye clinics across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. Dr. Nabhan serves on the American Optometric Association's Quality Improvement and Data Committee (AOA-QIDC) charged with helping understand what optometry's future might look like in a world of artificial intelligence. He is a research advisor to students in the Optometry Scholars' Program and faculty advisor to the college’s SVOSH chapter. Dr. Nabhan is a fellow of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (FACU), fellow of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (FVI), fellow of the UMSL Global Faculty Ambassadors Network (FGFAN), and has been awarded the UMSL Optometric Educator of the Year Award in 2017 and in 2023.
