Diane “Juliette” Melendez
Dr. Melendez started a foundation to help find a cure for retina diseases, in particular, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) in which his mother was diagnosed with when he was a young boy.
He always wanted to find a cure for her eye disease, so he started a foundation called the Juliette RP Vision Foundation (JulietteFoundation.org) in 2008, named after his mother. The foundation provides scholarships to visually impaired college students and grants to young scientists conducting retina research, most recently to Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
To continue this legacy of helping others see better, Dr. Melendez started The Juliette Eye Institute, whose mission statement is Patients First. He has been told that he has a great bedside manner, cares for his patients, and desires that each person have a personalized care plan for their eye conditions and eye surgery.
He specializes in cataract and refractive surgeries to help patients see their best. He wanted to create an eye practice where he could spend more time with the patient so he could better understand them and their vision needs. Dr. Melendez started The Juliette Eye Institute to offer world-class care in New Mexico.