Our Founders

Doc­tor Mark Tafoya com­pleted his BS and Doc­tor­ate of Optom­e­try at Uni­ver­sity of Hous­ton.  While pur­su­ing his first doc­tor­ate, he real­ized that vit­re­o­reti­nal surgery was his pas­sion.  He con­tin­ued his edu­ca­tion in his home state of Nebraska at Uni­ver­sity of Nebraska Med­ical Cen­ter, where he earned his Med­ical Doc­tor­ate in 1995.  He com­pleted his oph­thal­mol­ogy res­i­dency at Uni­ver­sity of Florida and his two-year vit­re­o­reti­nal fel­low­ship under H Michael Lam­bert, MD in Hous­ton, Texas.  Doc­tor Tafoya’s unique com­bi­na­tion of Opto­met­ric and Oph­thal­mo­logic train­ing enables him to com­pletely under­stand and address your every eye care need.  In 2002, he accepted the vit­re­o­reti­nal sur­geon posi­tion at Hawaii Per­ma­nente Med­ical Group where he prac­ticed until open­ing this office.  In his free time, Doc­tor Tafoya sits on the board of the Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion– Hawaii Chap­ter and his church’s vestry. He also enjoys spend­ing time with his fam­ily and traveling.

Admin­is­tra­tor– Tammy Lem earned her BA in Biol­ogy and Chem­istry from Mills Col­lege in Oak­land, Cal­i­for­nia.  She then obtained her doc­tor­ate in Optom­e­try from Uni­ver­sity of Hous­ton Col­lege of Optom­e­try in 1991.  She and Doc­tor Tafoya have been mar­ried since 1992.  Aside from her posi­tion as Pacific Retina Care’s Admin­is­tra­tor, she spends the rest of her time rais­ing their two chil­dren, Miranda and Jack; vol­un­teer­ing at their school; and serv­ing on their neigh­bor­hood com­mu­nity asso­ci­a­tion board.