Ava K. Bittner, OD, PhD

Dr. Ava Bittner received her Optometry degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry with clinical honors in pediatrics and low vision. She earned a PhD in clinical investigation from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Bittner completed a clinical research post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute’s Lions Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center from 2002-2007, and then joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at the Wilmer Eye Institute. From 2014-2019, she held the rank of Associate Professor at the Nova Southeastern University, College of Optometry in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Dr. Bittner joined the UCLA faculty in the Department of Ophthalmology in 2019. She is currently a Professor of Ophthalmology at the UCLA Stein Eye Institute and her primary clinical interest is low vision rehabilitation. She is the Smotrich Family Optometric Clinician-Scientist Chair, and serves at the Director of the UCLA Vision Rehabilitation Center and Chief of Optometric Services at the Stein Eye Institute. Dr. Bittner's research interests include the psychophysical assessment of the healthy and diseased visual system, both to increase the understanding of this system and to develop tools to monitor disease and therapeutic outcomes. She also designs and leads the conduct of clinical trials to evaluate interventions to help improve visual functioning in patients with low vision. Dr. Bittner has received NIH funding (K23, R21, and R01 awards) from the National Eye Institute, and has served as a co-investigator or consultant for multi-center clinical trials of devices or treatments for patients with retinal degenerations. Dr. Bittner serves on several professional research committees and as an editorial board member for vision science journals. She travels regularly both nationally and internationally to speak on topics related to her research in vision rehabilitation and is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications.