Stephanie Vanderveldt, M.D.
Physician Partner & Board Member & Co-Chair
Dr. Vanderveldt was born in New York, New York and grew up in Clearwater, Florida. She received her undergraduate degree in anthropology from Princeton University before moving on to medical school at the Duke University Medical School. After medical school, she served as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and then returned to Florida for both her Ophthalmology Residency and her Retina Fellowship at the prestigious Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which has consistently ranked as the top eye hospital in the country for the past 15 years. Dr. Vanderveldt has now found her home in Georgia working at Georgia Retina.
Dr. Vanderveldt didn’t just receive a diverse education; she also earned the honor of multiple awards. During her medical school education, she received a merit-based Senior Scholarship for Excellence in Research and Academics, was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, and also was valedictorian. She received the Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Award after she graduated, which is an award given exclusively to women who graduate first in their medical school class. During her ophthalmology residency, she received the Residents Day Research Award. During her retina fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, she was selected to serve as Chief Resident, which is one of the most prestigious retina fellowships available to ophthalmologists in the United States. Outside of her education, Dr. Vanderveldt participated in numerous clinical studies and published several articles in multiple medical journals.
Dr. Vanderveldt chose a career in medicine because she wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. She selected her specialty because she loves restoring sight to people. “Ophthalmology, and particularly Retina, is a rare specialty that allows a physician to be both a surgeon healing people in the operating room but also a medical doctor who sees people and treats them in the clinic. I get to see some of my patients every month for years, and that fosters a very special bond,” Dr. Vanderveldt notes.
Dr. Vanderveldt can’t imagine doing anything else with her career other than restoring vision; however, it’s no surprise that Dr. Vanderveldt loves to travel during her spare time, especially with a pilot’s license under her belt. She also loves to ski, scuba dive, and spend time with her French Bulldogs.
