Sarah Syeda, MD
Dr. Sarah Syeda was born in Ireland and received a richly diverse international education. She spent her formative years attending an international school in Saudi Arabia before relocating to England for high school. From there, she went on to pursue her medical education at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
During medical school, Dr. Syeda was deeply involved in global health initiatives. She volunteered with a medical charity and spent several summers in Malawi, where she helped establish healthcare infrastructure for an orphan care center and collaborated with the local medical school in Blantyre to create referral pathways. After earning her medical degree, she completed two years of clinical training as a Foundation House Officer with the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland.
Driven by a passion for research, Dr. Syeda then moved to Miami to research the role of innate immunity in a murine model of retinitis pigmentosa. Following this, she completed a clinical and research fellowship in ocular immunology and uveitis under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Foster in Boston. Dr. Syeda went on to complete her ophthalmology residency at the Kresge Eye Institute in Michigan, where she was elected one of two Chief Residents, leading a cohort of 28 residents in her final year. Although her fascination with all of ophthalmology began the moment she first saw asteroid hyalosis through a slit lamp, it was the intricate nature of surgical and medical retina - and the profound impact retinal disease has on patients' lives - that drew her deeper into the field.
She went on to complete her vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at the renowned Illinois Retina Associates, where she felt such a strong connection to the team and mission that she chose to join the practice following her training. Outside of medicine, Dr. Syeda enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and two young sons, gardening, and exploring all that the Chicagoland area has to offer.