Academic Status
College of Medicine and Public Health
Professor Celia Chen is the current President of the Neuro-Ophthalmology Society of Australia.
On returning to South Australia from the United States, Dr Chen was awarded a prestigious NH&MRC Translation of Research into Practice (TRIP) Fellowship. This allowed her to develop leadership skills which has culminated in her being elected the President of the Neuro-Ophthalmology Society of Australia. This is the peak body representing neuro-ophthalmologists within Australia.
In 2017, she was awarded the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Leadership Fellowship.
In recognition of her expertise in ophthalmology, she is on the Board for the Royal Society for the Blind and has been appointed a life Governor. She is appointed by the Minister for Health to the Commonwealth of Australia Professional Service Review Panel.
Professor Chen has been dedicated to provide mentorship and learning opportunities for young ophthalmologists in the Asia-Pacific region. She has been doing field work in Cambodia with the Fred Hollow's Foundation for over 10 years since 2012 and provides hand on experience with patient contact,teaching operations and a neuro-ophthalmology teaching curriculum to the Cambodian Ophthalmologists. She helped establish the Khmer Sight Fellowship Program in 2016. The aim of the scholarship is to assist young Cambodian Ophthalmologists to do fellowship training in a subspecialty area of ophthalmology in a centre of recognized excellence in an external country. The scholarship winner then return to Cambodia to take over the role of teaching the next generation of residents in the Ophthalmology Residents Training program. The foundation was adopted by the APAO Women in Ophthalmology Program titled, ""Optimizing sustainable ophthalmology teaching program in developing countries" where Celia is on the steering committee and has ensured the ongoing and success of the program that is currently continuously running since its establishment in 2019.