Dr. James Whelan graduated with a medical doctorate from Memorial University in Newfoundland. He then undertook his ophthalmology residency at Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia. He worked as a general ophthalmologist in Ontario and Newfoundland. He then went on to do a fellowship at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia in medical and surgical diseases of the retina, vitreous and intraocular tumours.

Dr. Whelan is currently an assistant professor and chief of ophthalmology for the Department of Surgery at Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland. He is a staff retina surgeon for the Eastern Health Corporation at the Health Science Center and Janeway Child Health Centre in St. John's. He is president of the Canadian Retina Society, and secretary for the Canadian Ophthalmology Society.