Richard Foulkes, M.D.

Dr. Foulkes is from Washington State where he grew up as an aspiring cowboy, astronaut, and Beatle. With the impending Vietnam draft, he joined the US Navy as a medic and surgical technician.

He demonstrated exceptional skill and functioned as a second surgeon. Upon discharge from the Navy Dr. Foulkes initially attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena before acquiring a Biology degree from Tufts University Cum laude and attending Rush Medical College (top 10% of his class) in Chicago. He met his wife Rita as a classmate there and they both trained in New York at Cornell Weill Medical Center. Dr. Foulkes was Chief resident in his ophthalmology program which at the time served Brooklyn and Queens attending to an underserved population. Their son Wolfgang was born at New York Hospital at the close of their training. It was their intention to move to California, but Rita had to fulfill a public health scholarship. Dr. Foulkes began working for the Humana HMO where he became the Ophthalmology Medical Director for 8 years. Working on the south side of Chicago his team improved the care by bringing state-of-the-art care that had become the standard during his training, including small incision cataract surgery, and glaucoma and diabetic care. Dr. Foulkes is an inventor, and he began working in refractive surgery at the beginning of the laser era contributing to the development of two laser systems that improved the safety and accuracy of these treatments to reduce the need for glasses. At every phase of his career, Dr. Foulkes has had the privilege of providing care to large numbers of patients, many of whom were referred for complex care. He feels humbled by the trust placed in our care and continuously tries to improve the state of our amazing field.

Dr. Foulkes is a road cyclist who currently rides the Tour de France from his garage. He is a guitarist and performs a 4-hour fundraising rock show with his wife and IDOX at Academy meetings and has won Beatles competitions.

He has taken up golf upon arriving in Los Angeles, loves to cook, and has been active politically doing social justice work since college with Amnesty International.

He is a cancer survivor and doing very well. His daughter is a filmmaker in Chicago.