Lourdes A. Fortepiani, MD, PhD, FAAO

Dr. María Lourdes Alarcón Fortepiani is a Full Professor at the Rosenberg School of Optometry at UIW, San Antonio, Texas. She obtained her MD and PhD from Universidad de Murcia (Murcia, Spain). She practiced medicine while obtaining her PhD and completed her postdoctoral training at University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson, Mississippi). Dr. Fortepiani moved to San Antonio and was appointed Research Assistant Professor at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) where she currently holds an adjunct faculty position at the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology. She joined Rosenberg School of Optometry (RSO) when it opened its doors in 2009 as an Assistant Professor and became a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. Dr. Fortepiani is primarily involved in teaching Human and Ocular Physiology, Immunology, Pathology, Clinical Medicine and Patient Care at the Optometry program in addition to Integrated Ocular Science in the undergraduate Vision Science program at RSO.

In addition to intramural awards at UTHSCSA and UIW, Dr. Fortepiani has been funded by National Institute of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA) and American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) to study the mechanisms involved in postmenopausal hypertension and diabetes. She continues her research focus on diabetes studying signaling pathways involved in diabetic retinopathy in collaboration with the Department of Ophthalmology at University of Texas Health at San Antonio (formerly UTHSCSA). Her current interest also includes effective inclusive teaching.