Dr. Rebecca Soares earned a bachelor of arts degree with distinction, graduating summa cum laude from Yale University. She earned her medical degree and a master of public health from Emory University School of Medicine, where she graduated magna cum laude. She went on to complete her Internal Medicine internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in Ophthalmology at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia and her Vitreoretinal surgical fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital Mid Atlantic Retina.

Dr. Soares holds many national honors and awards for her research, academic performance, as well as her involvement in volunteer service over the years. In 2021, she received the Retina Society’s Fellowship Research Award and the Annual Wills Eye Conference McDonald Award. As a medical student, Dr. Soares was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and was awarded the Anne Elizabeth and Harper Gaston Service Scholarship for outstanding community service, leadership and academic accomplishments.

Dr. Soares has led a number of public health initiatives. Among them, she was Founder/Director of the Pediatric Vision Screening program at the Mexican Consulate in the US. She also founded and directed the Farmworker Vision Project, an intervention program to prevent and treat eye disease in migrant farmworkers and their children.

Dr. Soares specializes in the medical and surgical care of retinal diseases like macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, macular pucker, macular hole, retinal detachment, and the complications of cataract surgery. Her goal is to skillfully and compassionately offer all patients the most advanced treatments available, including anti-VEGF treatments, laser and small incision surgery.

As an active researcher, she has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed studies. She has extensive involvement in eye health-related community service and public health initiatives.