Past President
Dean McGee Eye Institute
David W. Parke II, MD Professor
Vice Chair for Faculty Development
and External Relations
Regents’ Professor and Past Chair
Department of Ophthalmology
University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
Clinical Focus
Special Clinical/Surgical Interests
- Wound Healing in Glaucoma Filtering Surgery
- Glaucoma Clinical Trials
Education
- BS: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- MD: University of Illinois College of Medicine
- Residency: University of Wisconsin – Madison
- Fellowship: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami
Bio
Dr. Skuta is currently the David W. Parke II, MD Professor, Vice Chair for Faculty Development and External Relations, and Regents’ Professor at the Dean McGee Eye Institute and in the University of Oklahoma (OU) College of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology in Oklahoma City. A member of the DMEI/OU faculty since 1992, he served as DMEI’s President and Chief Executive Officer and the Edward L. Gaylord Professor and Chair of the OU Department of Ophthalmology from 2009 to 2021.
He is a native of Illinois and received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois College of Medicine respectively. Dr. Skuta completed an ophthalmology residency at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he was chief resident, and a glaucoma fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. He also served on the faculty at the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center from 1987 to 1992.
Dr. Skuta has contributed to more than 120 publications, book chapters, and educational products and has a particular research and clinical interest in wound healing and its modulation in glaucoma filtering surgery as well as glaucoma clinical trials. He served as President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) in 2014. From 2007 to 2012, Dr. Skuta was the Academy’s Senior Secretary for Clinical Education. In 2006, Dr. Skuta completed a six-year term as Secretary for Ophthalmic Knowledge for the AAO. He has served on the AAO’s Board of Trustees, Executive Committee, Committee of Secretaries, Nominating Committee (chair in 2015), and Awards Committee. Dr. Skuta is currently the Executive Vice President of the American Glaucoma Society, the chair of the AAO’s Foundation Advisory Board, a member of the Academy’s Board of Trustees, the AAO representative to the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR)/Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR), and the Vice President of NAEVR/AEVR. He also serves on the Board of Directors, Underwriting Committee, and Risk Management Committee for the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (OMIC).
Dr. Skuta is a Past President of the American Glaucoma Society (AGS, 2005-2006), a past member of the Board of Directors of the AGS Foundation, and a past Director/Senior Examiner (2001-2008) for the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO). He served as chair of the Written Examinations Committee for the ABO and on its Executive Committee, Nominating Committee, Examiners Committee, and Maintenance of Certification Committee. He was an ABO representative to the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. Skuta is a past member (2004-2007) of the Board of Governors of the World Glaucoma Association (formerly the Association of International Glaucoma Societies). He has been an editor for the AAO’s ProVision print and CD-ROM educational products and also has served as a principal investigator for the National Eye Institute-sponsored Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS) and Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study (CIGTS). In addition, he was a member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee for the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS).
He is a past chair of the AGS Program Committee and the AAO’s Self-Assessment Committee. Dr. Skuta has served on the AAO’s Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program (OKAP) Committee and is a past member of the editorial board for the Journal of Glaucoma and the AAO’s EyeNet magazine. He is a Past President of the American Eye Study Club and a past Director-at-Large for the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Skuta is an active member of the Glaucoma Research Society (formerly known as the Glaucoma Society of the International Congress of Ophthalmology) and American Ophthalmological Society. He has delivered lectures and presentations at more than 250 meetings throughout the United States and also in South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and South Africa.
Among Dr. Skuta’s honors and awards are Phi Beta Kappa, President of the University of Illinois Varsity Men’s Glee Club, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, the Resident Teaching Award from the University of Michigan Department of Ophthalmology, and the AAO’s Achievement Award, Senior Achievement Award, and Life Achievement Honor Award. He is or has been listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World (and is a 2017 recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award) and among the Best Doctors in America, America’s Top Ophthalmologists (Consumers’ Research Council of America), Oklahoma Super Doctors, and Castle Connolly Top Doctors. Dr. Skuta was inducted into the Tuscola (Illinois) Community High School Hall of Fame in 2014. He was awarded a Regents’ Professorship by the OU Board of Regents in 2017 for “outstanding service to the University, to the academic community, or to an academic or professional discipline through extraordinary achievement in academic administration or professional service.” In 2018, he received the AGS President’s Award for “significant contributions to the glaucoma community through his scientific achievements, service to the Society, and/or service to the profession as a whole” and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Wisconsin Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Dr. Skuta also has been recognized with the 2022 Dean’s Award for Distinguished Medical Service from the OU College of Medicine Alumni Association and the 2023 Distinguished Service Award from the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology.
He and his wife Anne have been married for 40 years. She has degrees in nursing and health services administration from the University of Michigan and is a recently retired director for the Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. They reside in Edmond, Oklahoma, and have three children (Jon, who is an Oklahoma City police officer and is married to Amy (Gibson) Skuta, a limb prosthetics specialist; Cate, a physical therapist with Physical Therapy Central in Oklahoma City and married to Justan Wright, who works for Continental Resources; and Matt, a film and media studies graduate of the University of Oklahoma – Norman who now lives and works in the Los Angeles, California area). They have one granddaughter, Adelyn Grace Wright, and one grandson, Everett Joseph Wright, and are members of St. Luke’s Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.
Dr. Skuta’s outside interests include music, travel, American Presidential history, and cinema.
