Chief Medical Officer, WVU Medicine and Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs, WVU School of Medicine
By Kristen Uppercue
Judie Charlton, M.D., has been at the forefront of female health care leadership in West Virginia for the duration of her career. Joining West Virginia University (WVU) School of Medicine in 1989, she worked her way up the ranks, accepting an appointment as department chair of ophthalmology in 2008. In 2010, she was named WVU Medicine’s chief medical officer, where she is responsible for overseeing clinical programs and ensuring they address the needs of the state as well as the school’s educational programs and research initiatives. She also serves as vice dean for clinical affairs and as a board member of University Health Associates, University Healthcare, WVU Health System, Health Partners Network and the Accountable Care Organization of West Virginia. In 2019, she was listed in Becker’s Hospital Review’s “100 Hospital and Health System CMOs to Know.”
Charlton chose to specialize in ophthalmology because of the impact it has on patients’ lives, its high success rate, its level of precision and its use of cutting-edge technology. She remembers receiving her first pair of glasses in elementary school and the impact it had on her.
“There is a wow factor in helping people see well,” she says.
Charlton graduated from WVU with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a medical degree. It was during her sophomore year that WVU recognized her academic performance and began waiving her tuition fees. This gift inspired her to spend her career giving back to WVU and serving West Virginians.
“It was transformative to my life,” says Charlton. “When later offered the opportunity to stay on as faculty at WVU, I couldn’t think of a better way to pay back those who made my education possible.”
Charlton has also paid it forward through her work with glaucoma patients. In recognition of her work in this area, she was named the inaugural recipient of the Judie F. Charlton Chair for Glaucoma Outreach in 2014, an endowed chair that has proven to be integral to WVU Eye Institute’s efforts to address glaucoma care.
“Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness, and it blinds people slowly and silently,” she says. “More than 1,000 individuals have been screened, and our rate of finding ophthalmic conditions that merit further evaluation is 40 percent.”
Charlton also spent 15 years as part of an outreach team that provided care to blind children in the country of St. Lucia.
“St. Lucia is a mountainous island with geographic and socioeconomic challenges, and in many ways it is like dropping West Virginia in the middle of the Caribbean,” she says. “The island has the highest incidence of glaucoma in the world and was struggling to provide pediatric eye surgery and rehabilitation services for blind children. The island government and volunteer agencies had not had the desired impact in these areas, so a team of West Virginia eye care professionals was invited to try to help. The West Virginia team’s ability to meld with their culture and circumstances had a large impact, and the partnership continues today.”
Charlton’s professional accomplishments and passion for those she serves hasn’t gone unnoticed. Throughout her career, she has been the recipient of the WVU School of Medicine Distinguished Teacher Award, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Service, the Most Loyal Faculty Mountaineer and the Community Bridge Builder Award. While she is proud of these accomplishments, she considers her greatest success to be parenting three children while growing a clinical program that has recruited 550 physicians in four years and provides approximately 7,000 patient encounters per day.
Charlton is now pursuing a hobby in botanical illustration through the West Virginia Master Naturalist Program, which provides education and volunteer opportunities in areas of forestry, botany, wildlife, geology and waterways.
“After decades of working with data about how West Virginia trails the nation in health disparities, it is refreshing to be with polar opposite data that shows West Virginia as top in the nation in plant diversity and other natural resources,” says Charlton.
While Charlton’s ancestors, Morgan Morgan and Francis Pierpoint, may make her West Virginia royalty, her loyalty to the Mountain State is born from the opportunities she has found here.
“My core connection to West Virginia is the incredible gift given to me by its citizens who sponsored my education, gave me transformative opportunities and entrusted me with their care,” she says.
Chloe the Service Dog
Judie Charlton and her husband, Bruce Andrews, were in search of an intelligent, good-natured, obedient dog when they found Chloe. After locating her through a breeder in Nebraska whose dogs have a high success rate in becoming guide dogs, they decided to train Chloe, their English Labrador retriever, to become a service dog.
Chloe graduated from basic training first, where she learned commands like sit, stay and heel. She then entered more intense training specific to therapy dogs that included performing tasks with distractions like approaching patients in beds and wheelchairs and controlling her excitement when crossing paths with people and other dogs. She had three supervised trial visits at nursing homes as well as extra veterinarian tests to ensure she was healthy before applying to the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. With her acceptance, she applied to be a hospital volunteer.
Today, when Charlton gets out Chloe’s vest, Chloe gets excited at the prospect of visiting patients. At the nursing home, some units like to have therapy dogs visit with interested patients at scheduled times. Other times, therapy dog visits come as a special request from a patient or their medical team. While Chloe has brightened the day for patients with a variety of health challenges, she seems to have a greater impact on stroke patients. According to Charlton, the most rewarding experience has been when Chloe helps stroke patients who were unable to speak coherently find their voice as well as some happiness in a difficult time.
