Esther L. Kim, MD

Dr. Esther Lee Kim is a Southern California native who grew up in the Fullerton area. She received her undergraduate education at Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude with a degree in Molecular Biology. She received her medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine, where she discovered her love of ophthalmology. After her internal medicine internship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, she completed her ophthalmology residency at the University of Southern California (USC) Roski Eye Institute (formerly Doheny Eye Institute)/ Los Angeles County Medical Center, one of the busiest and top-ranked residency programs in the country. She then pursued a subspecialty fellowship in Vitreoretinal Surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. There, she gained clinical and surgical expertise in diseases of the macula, retina, and vitreous.
Dr. Kim has published extensively on a wide range of innovative topics in vitreoretinal surgery that have been featured in leading ophthalmology journals. She has been invited to present her research at national and international ophthalmology meetings, and she serves as an invited reviewer for several top ophthalmology journals, including Retina. Dr. Kim’s clinical interests include macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal tears and detachments, macular puckers and holes, and retinal imaging.
When she is not practicing retina, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, running, yoga, spinning, and trying new restaurants.