Marnix E. Heersink is an ophthalmologist and co-founder of Eye Center South. Born in the Netherlands, Heersink earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Following a surgical internship in Montreal, and an ophthalmology residency and an anterior segment surgery fellowship, both in Philadelphia, he and his wife, Mary, moved to Dothan, Alabama, where he helped found Eye Center South in 1978. He has helped lead several research studies with the Trinity Research Group in Dothan since 2016, and is a fellow and member of several professional organizations including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, International College of Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Heersink is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology, and the American Board of Eye Surgery.

Committed philanthropists, the Heersinks have funded numerous scholarships and fellowships at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Troy Business School. They also established the Wiregrass Pathway to Optometry scholarship. Heersink founded the Eye Education Foundation, an educational nonprofit for eye care professionals. Recently, the family made transformative gifts to two universities: The University of Alabama at Birmingham, (which named its medical school the Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine) and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Heersink has lectured internationally, and has served or serves on numerous nonprofit boards. He holds an honorary doctorate from McMaster University.

Heersink and Mary live in Dothan, Alabama and have six children and 11 grandchildren.

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