Graduates of The Jones Fellowship at Lions Vision Center, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine — the only low vision fellowship in the United States — have gone on to become vision rehabilitation practitioners around the world in a variety of settings, from academic medicine to private practice. Three of the program’s most recent graduates, however, didn’t go too far for their next move. All three — Dominic Brown, O.D., Mihret Girum, O.D., and Colette Houssan, O.D., M.P.H. — are members of the low vision faculty at Wilmer.

For Houssan, who completed her fellowship in 2025 and joined the faculty in March, the fellowship provided specialized, hands-on training that gave her more experience than the low-vision classes she previously had taken. It also provided her with research training that she continues to use.

The fellowship also helped Houssan build lasting connections with nonprofit and government organizations, including Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, the Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs low vision rehabilitation services. As a faculty member, she draws on those relationships to help connect her patients with valuable resources and support beyond the clinic.

Over the course of her fellowship, Houssan realized she wanted to pursue a career in academic medicine as a low vision specialist, particularly at Wilmer. “I think this fellowship truly lets you find where you want to be,” she says.

Brown, who completed the fellowship and joined the Wilmer faculty in 2022, was yearning for more experience with research, as the residency program he graduated from had more of a clinical focus at the time. During his time as a fellow, he was able to get experience in literature review, writing, Institutional Review Board forms and executing research plans.

As a fellow, he also came to appreciate working with the institute’s low vision team and its strong leadership. He says the fellowship gave him experience working with complex cases and gave him confidence to help patients work with the vision they have. “It felt like a very natural transition to join the Wilmer faculty,” he says.

As Girum completed the fellowship earlier this year, she realized a career in academic medicine in a hospital setting would be a good fit for her. Being able to partake in Grand Rounds gave her a chance to reflect on the care she provided and see how her peers collaborated with low vision providers to bridge gaps in care that patients were facing. She also appreciated receiving support from faculty as she learned how to evaluate patients holistically.

“The mentorship component really helps you appreciate all the different pieces of information that you have about a patient and how that leads to their daily functioning,” she says. “Throughout the fellowship, I got that hands-on guidance in terms of how to evaluate a patient from that perspective, and that’s what really helps me moving forward as a faculty member.”

Brown says the patient complexity he has seen as a fellow and faculty member at Wilmer is unlike anywhere else. He has had patients come from within Wilmer, as well as through referrals from both local and out-of-state providers. Some travel great distances — even flying — to get to an appointment with a low vision specialist. “We’re seeing patients from far and wide with a variety of diseases and presentations, and they all want the care. They need the care,” he says.

Given that level of need, Brown believes the fellowship is uniquely positioned not only to provide specialized low vision care, but also to inspire burgeoning optometrists to pursue low vision research. “We are the only program in the country,” he says. “We are perfectly aligned to receive that influx of curiosity.”