Monica Sheaffer, O.D., an optometrist at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine who has provided patient care at the institute’s Bayview and Bel Air satellite clinics for nearly three decades, will retire at the end of January.

Sheaffer joined Wilmer in 1993 after earning her optometry degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. For more than a quarter of a century, she was a fixture at Wilmer’s Bayview optical shop, providing eye exams and triaging patients who went to the clinic with various issues.

Robert Weinberg, M.D., an associate professor of ophthalmology at Wilmer who was medical director of the Bayview clinic from 1997 to 2015, says Sheaffer was thorough and kind to her patients. “She was always right on the money as far as concerns and diagnoses,” he says. “She’s exactly what we would hope to see in an optometrist in the ophthalmology department at Wilmer.”

Natalie Zebraski, executive assistant at the Bayview clinic since 1997, says Sheaffer was a constant at the clinic as the optometry field and Wilmer’s operating procedures evolved. “Things have changed over the years, but she was always that person you could go to with any questions,” Zebraski says.

“She wasn’t the average optometrist,” Zebraski adds. “Some people just treat you for the particular problem, but she treated you as a whole, and that’s how she has always been.”

Among the practitioners Sheaffer referred patients to at Bayview was J. Fernando Arevalo, M.D., Ph.D., the current medical director at the Bayview clinic, who worked with her for about five years. Arevalo says Sheaffer has a talent for determining which specialists patients need to see. “When you received a patient from Dr. Sheaffer, it was really easy to help the patient based on her previous examination,” he says. “There was always a very thorough exam performed on file that I could rely on to do the proper testing and find what the exact problem was very quickly.”

After Wilmer closed its Bayview optical shop in 2020, instead of retiring, Sheaffer opted to extend her career and transfer to the Bel Air clinic. “We wanted to keep her as long as possible,” says Kristy Davidson, M.H.A., Wilmer’s assistant administrator for clinical operations. “Anybody who worked with her or for her loved her.”

“This is the kind of colleague that your patients remember even years after they are gone,” Arevalo says. “My patients are still asking me about her and how she’s doing and where she is. Some of them still go to Bel Air to see her even though they were her patients in Bayview.”

Adrienne Scott, M.D., medical director of the Bel Air clinic, heard about Sheaffer from patients for more than a decade before Sheaffer transferred to Bel Air, and Scott says Scheaffer was known for excellent and compassionate patient care. While working with her, that reputation became solidified. “If you’re the director of a clinic, she’s a superstar,” Scott says. “She makes the clinic shine.”

Sheaffer’s curiosity hasn’t waned even after nearly 30 years at Wilmer. Scott says she has continued to ask ophthalmologists questions based on patients’ needs. “As experienced as she is in practice, she’s always eager to learn,” Scott says. “She’s always asking questions to give her patients the best care.”