Dr. Penny Asbell is a Professor of Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of the Cornea Service and Refractive Surgery Center. She initiated Mount Sinai Medical Center's Lowenstein Foundation Sjogren's Center to provide multi-specialty care for patients with dry eyes and associated systemic problems.

Dr. Asbell received her M.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, interned in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, then trained as a resident and fellow in Ophthalmology and Immunology at the New York University Medical Center. She went on to a fellowship in Cornea at Louisiana State University Eye Center in New Orleans. She recently received her Executive M.B.A. as valedictorian of the class at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch University of the City University of New York.

Dr. Asbell is currently on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Refractive Surgery and is Past-President of the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists, now serving as the Editor-In-Chief of Contact Point, CLAO's Resident Journal, and the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration. In addition, she received the National Research Service Award and the American Academy of Ophthalmology Senior Honor Award. She has served as President of Women In Ophthalmology and is now on the advisory committee. Dr. Asbell serves on Mount Sinai's Committee on the Ethical Practices in Research and the New York County Medical Society's Special Committee on Women Physicians. She is a world-renowned educator and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, India, and South America. In honor of her achievement in leadership, she was appointed to the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in American Medicine Program for Women, a program sponsored by the Allegheny University of Health Sciences' Institute for Women's Health and supported by the Dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Dr. Asbell's basic and clinical research has made significant contributions to the development and subsequent approval of numerous medical devices and pharmaceuticals. As principal investigator in countless studies sponsored by the National Eye Institute and industry, she has participated in the development of pharmaceuticals that has included pivotal treatments for

ocular herpes,
corneal ulcers, and
dry eyes.

She has been an innovator in the evolution of refractive surgeries, including

radial keratotomy,
the intrastromal corneal ring, and
excimer laser photo-refractive keratectomy.

She has authored and coauthored hundreds of articles, authored 25 book chapters, and has presented well over 200 lectures and courses, and has been extensively interviewed by the New York Times, CBS News, Good Morning America, Bloomberg News, CNN, and many other nationally broadcasted events.