Resident Class of 2022: Dr. Liana Ferreira

A career in healthcare was always the goal for Liana Ferreira, OD ‘21, ‘22Resident, thanks to her a mother, a nurse practitioner who helped fuel her decision. But she didn’t discover her interest in optometry until she was an undergraduate at Sacred Heart University where the Easton, Connecticut, native earned her bachelor’s degree in neurobiology.

“When I was taking a few neuro classes, they talked a lot about the eye, and it really interested me,” she said.

Dr. Ferreira’s neuroscience classes led her to subsequent roles shadowing different optometrists before becoming a lab technician at LensCrafters, giving Dr. Ferreira a well-rounded view of the optometry profession.

“I was not on the medical side, but working with glasses and getting the optics portion, which was pretty cool,” she said.

That was years ago. Today, Dr. Ferreira is a recent graduate of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus Class of 2021 as well as one of PCO’s newest residents. Dr. Ferreira decided to pursue a residency at PCO/Salus during her fourth-year clinical rotations as a Doctor of Optometry (OD) student when she also discovered her specialty, a passion for ocular care primary disease.

“It opened my eyes to how much more there is to learn and how each person has a unique case of the same disease, but it just presents itself so differently,” Dr. Ferreira said. “You get the foundation, the basics giving you the ability to help people, but then ocular disease pushed me to think outside the box a little bit more as well. So, I got the best of both worlds and honed in on this specific type of residency.”

During her residency, which started in early July, Dr. Ferreira is eager to learn more through opportunities to provide a broad range of primary, secondary and tertiary eye care at The Eye Institute (TEI), the main clinical facility of PCO/Salus. Beyond primary care, Dr. Ferreira will rotate through specialty service assignments such as neuro-ophthalmic disease, vitreo-retinal disease and pediatrics/binocular vision to name a few. A return engagement for the PCO/Salus alumna, she is also happy to be back among the familiar faces of those who taught her as a student.

“I spent a lot of time there,” she said. “I know all the doctors and I have really good relationships with them. And I knew I would continue to flourish in that type of environment where they're all super supportive and I really get along with all of them.”

For now, Dr. Ferreira is leaving future plans open. But the excitement she has for the precepting portion of her residency program combined with how much she enjoys helping her younger sister Victoria Duque-Ferreira ‘23OD, a third-year PCO/Salus student, has recently made her consider academia.

“When she started here, that opened the door for me, teaching her little things here and there and helping her with practicals and studying,” she said. “I was just there two years ago. I know exactly how it feels and what she's going through. So, I loved having the opportunity to guide her. Now, being able to do it as a doctor, having more knowledge at this point, giving students tips and tricks to become better clinicians, it really does bring me a lot of joy.”