2020 EnergEYES Awardee: Mildred M. G. Olivier, MD

Dr. Olivier is Assistant Dean for Diversity and Professor of Surgery, Division of Ophthalmology at Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (CMS/RFUMS) and John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital at Cook County. She has been a volunteer at RFUMS since 1995.  She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola University and her medical degree from the CMS/RFUMS Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, ‘88. She completed her ophthalmology residency at Columbia University at Harlem Hospital Center in New York, and her Fellowship in Glaucoma at the Kresge Eye Institute at Wayne State University under the direction of Dr. Dong Shin, MD, PhD.

As Assistant Dean for Diversity, Dr. Olivier serves on the Chicago Medical School Admissions Committee, Chairs the Diversity Advisory Council.  She has worked with Chicago Area Health and Medical Professionals CAHMCP’s Matriculation Program to identify under-represented minority students who are interested in health care. Dr. Olivier has brought accomplished alumni speakers to address CMS medical students and faculty on campus about pertinent topics relating to medical careers. Assistant Dean for Diversity include participating in the Match Day Events, counseling unmatched, under-represented minority students, addressing issues to help increase student diversity, inclusion and retention, as well as assisting in identifying minority candidates for faculty.  She is the Principle Investigator for an NIH/NEI grant which mentors and exposes medical students, residents and fellows to the world of vision research through the Rabb Venable Excellence in Ophthalmology program.  Under-represented minorities are encouraged to submit their abstracts and present at the Ophthalmology Section’s Annual meeting of the National Medical Association.

Dr. Olivier is past member-at-large of the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and past President of Women in Ophthalmology. She also served on the Women in Eye and Vision Research and Chaired the Women’s and Diversity committees of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. She has served on the Advisory Council of the National Eye Institute. She has represented the AAO as a delegate to the American Medical Association. Since 2004 and served as a member of the steering committee for AMA’s Commission to End Health Care Disparities, where she had leadership titles. Dr. Olivier served on the board for Prevent Blindness America. She is past president of the Chicago Chapter for the Haitian Physician’s Association (AMHE) and President of the Midwest Association of Haitian American Women, which she founded in Chicago. She served as a board member of the DuSable Museum of African American History. In addition, she is past president of the Chicago Glaucoma Society and is joining the board of the American Glaucoma Society.

A veteran of frequent medical missions to Haiti beginning in 1993, Dr. Olivier was a key member of the Task Force on Haiti Recovery following Haiti’s earthquake of 2010. Her work takes Dr. Olivier all over the world. She presented on the AAO/PAAO Task Force for Haiti Recovery and Organizational Collaboration at the World Glaucoma Conference in Berlin.  She presented at the Columbian Ophthalmological Society Glaucoma Symposium in Cartagena, Colombia.

Dr. Olivier’s work has been widely recognized with honors such as the American Glaucoma Society Humanitarian Award, the Roman-Barnes Award, the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Secretariat Award, the American Medical Association’s Dr. Nathan Davis Award in International Medicine, the Pan-American Congress of Ophthalmology’s Benjamin F. Boyd Humanitarian Award, Prevent Blindness America’s Person of Vision Award and recently got the Dean’s Award at CMS for her work in diversity and mentoring the students there.

Dr. Olivier has published in major peer-reviewed journals and is one of the co-authors for the Glaucoma section in Clinical Eye Atlas. She is one of three editors of the book Maintaining the Target Intraocular Pressure: African American Glaucoma Specialists. She edited the Book Global Health and Volunteering Beyond Borders which has over Five thousand downloads since it’s release over the summer of 2020.  She is frequently called upon by the media to address the topics of general eye health, glaucoma and efforts to end healthcare disparities.