Aleksandra Rachitskaya, MD (MED ‘08) is the recipient of the Young Alumni Award for her continued hard work and developing career as a physician-scientist at the Cole Eye Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Rachitskaya, a Russian immigrant, has worked hard to promote diversity in a male-dominated field of ophthalmology with a subspeciality in retina diseases and serves on the team for the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System program, which is an eye implant that allows those who have completely lost their vision new sight through electrical stimulation in areas of the retina. The team of surgeons at the Clinic are the only team in Ohio, and one of the few in the nation, to have performed this surgery and is one of the main research sites utilizing the Argus II technology for further innovation and research. Finally, Dr. Rachitskaya has won numerous prestigious fellowships, such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institutie-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program, as well as published numerous articles and journal contributions.