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Live webcast, Wednesday, April 18, 8:30 a.m. EST.
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Agenda | Event Details | Large-Print Program
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
R. Norman Bailey, OD, MPH
Dr. Bailey is a clinical professor at the College of Optometry at the University of Houston where, in addition to his attending duties in the University Eye Institute, he is the course master for the college’s Community Health course that emphasizes topics in public health, epidemiology, ethics and professionalism. Dr. Bailey is the immediate past chair of the Vision Care Section of the American Public Health Association and is a past chair of the Ethics and Values Committee of the American Optometric Association (AOA). He is currently a member of the Judicial Council of the AOA. Dr. Bailey participated in the development of the Vision Health Initiative within the Division of Diabetes Translation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a member of the Texas Health Survey User Group and a member of the Vision Health Work Group of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.
Kerry Beebe, OD
Dr. Beebe is a practicing optometrist in Brainerd, Minnesota and current chairperson of the American Optometric Association Clinical Care Group. He graduated from Indiana University School of Optometry in 1976. Dr. Beebe has served on policy committees regarding rural health, universal access to care, complications of diabetes, clinical practice guidelines, hospital and nursing facility practice and infant vision care. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Optometry, a member of the National Academies of Practice, the American Public Health Association and the American Diabetes Association.
Sandra S. Block, OD, MEd
Dr. Block has been a full time faculty at the Illinois College of Optometry since the completion of her residency in 1982 and has been working in the Pediatrics/Binocular Vision Service. Since 1995, Dr. Block has been a global clinical advisor to Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes Vision Program whose goal is to reduce preventable visual impairment and improve access to eye care worldwide for persons with intellectual disabilities. Most recently, she chaired an international multidisciplinary committee which jointly developed a global curriculum to offer continuing education to all eye care practitioners. Dr. Block currently has multiple publications and has lectured nationally as well as internationally. She is currently working towards a PhD in Epidemiology (Public Health) from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Block is a member of Prevent Blindness America’s Program & Public Health Committee and Pediatric Vision Advisory Committee.
Anne L. Coleman, MD, PhD
Dr. Coleman is professor of ophthalmology and epidemiology at UCLA and a member of the Glaucoma Division of the Department of Ophthalmology and of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine. She is the recipient of the Frances and Ray Stark Endowed Chair at UCLA (2004), and has received numerous other professional honors throughout her career. She is currently a member-at-large on the American Academy of Ophthalmology Board of Trustees. Dr. Coleman’s research is directed toward the diagnosis, treatment and societal impact of glaucoma, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), including the study of lifestyle limitations imposed on patients with these kinds of eye diseases. Clinical projects include a population-based study on the prevalence of glaucoma and AMD in Thessaloniki, Greece; geographic variation in diagnostic procedures for eye diseases in the Medicare population; the possible association between hip fractures from falls and impaired vision from glaucoma, cataract and AMD. Dr. Coleman is currently principal investigator of a collaborative multi-site study funded by the National Eye Institute on the incidence of AMD in elderly women.
Dr. Coleman is a member of Prevent Blindness America’s Adult Vision Advisory Committee.
Scott W. Cousins, MD
Dr. Cousins is a retina-trained ophthalmologist specializing in the diagnosis, treatment and research of macular diseases. He is the Robert Machemer professor of ophthalmology at Duke University where he directs the Duke Center for Macular Diseases in the Duke Eye Center. His clinical practice focuses upon age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy and retinal vascular diseases. Dr. Cousins is active in both clinical and scientific research. In his clinical practice, Dr. Cousins is involved in many clinical trials and innovative therapies for the treatment of macular diseases, especially AMD. In his scientific laboratory, Dr. Cousins pursues both National Institutes of Health-funded research and industry-funded research in various areas of dry and wet macular degeneration. In particular, his laboratory is attempting to develop treatments for dry macular degeneration and improve vision in eyes with wet macular degeneration. Also, his program is developing blood tests and new imaging technologies for the identification of patients who are at high risk for progressing into complications of macular degeneration.
Kevin D. Frick, PhD
Dr. Frick is a health economist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has worked extensively on issues related to the cost of illness and cost-effectiveness of a variety of health interventions. He has published on the global economic burden of unaccommodated blindness (working with Sight Savers International) as well as the economic impact of visual impairment in the United States. He has presented on a variety of issues related to the economics of visual impairment at the World Health Organization, the Association of Research on Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Optometry and the 4th Symposium on Ophthalmic Epidemiology.
David S. Friedman, MD, MPH
Dr. Friedman is an associate professor at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, and associate professor in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Friedman received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed his residency at Wills Eye Hospital and served as a glaucoma fellow with Dr. Harry Quigley. A recipient of a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins, Dr. Friedman anticipates completing his PhD in epidemiology this spring, also at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Friedman was the recipient of a Clinician Scientist Award from the National Eye Institute (NEI) in which he studied vision rehabilitation in nursing homes. He recently completed a study funded by the NEI to assess the prevalence and impact of glaucoma among individuals 75 years of age and older. He is currently a principal investigator on an NEI-sponsored study of the epidemiology of eye disease among preschool children.
Jonathan C. Javitt, MD, MPH
Dr. Javitt is a senior fellow of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and an adjunct professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Institute of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. For the past twenty years, he has focused his research on the costs, cost-effectiveness, and outcomes of eyecare delivery. Dr. Javitt has served as a Presidential advisor in both the Clinton and Bush administrations and has served as an expert consultant to Medicare, Federal Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has also served as an expert consultant to the World Bank and the health ministries of numerous countries in the area of cost-effectiveness of blindness prevention programs.
Paul P. Lee, MD, JD
Dr. Lee is the James Pitzer Gills III, MD and Joy Gills professor of ophthalmology at Duke Medical Center, senior fellow in the Duke Center on Aging and Human Development, and senior fellow of the Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research. He is a glaucoma specialist and an active clinician, surgeon and teacher in the Department of Ophthalmology. Service activities include consulting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, the Writing Committee for the maintenance of competency examination and associate examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology, the socioeconomics and health services section editor for the Archives of Ophthalmology, the Editorial Boards of Evidence-Based Eye Care and the Chinese Journal of Ophthalmology. He also serves as chair of the American Glaucoma Society's Quality of Care Subcommittee. Community service activities include Board of Directors involvement for the Center for the Partially Sighted in Santa Monica, CA, and the Blind Children's Center in Los Angeles, CA..
Dr. Lee is a member of the Board of Directors of Prevent Blindness America, its Program & Public Health Committee and Adult Vision Advisory Committee.
Mildred M.G. Olivier, MD
Dr. Olivier is an assistant professor at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital at Cook County and at Olympia Fields Osteopathic Hospital. She is currently the CEO of Midwest Glaucoma Center, P.C. She received her undergraduate degree from Loyola University and her medical degree from Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School. Dr. Olivier completed her ophthalmology residency at Columbia University at Harlem Hospital Center in New York and her fellowship in glaucoma at the Kresge Eye Institute at Wayne State University under the direction of Dr. Dong Shin, MD, PhD. Dr. Olivier has served on the Advisory Council of the National Eye Institute, the Women’s Task Force and Women and Diversity Committee at the Association for Research Vision and Ophthalmology and is a delegate for the American Academy of Ophthalmology to the American Medical Association. She is past president of the Chicago Chapter for the Haitian Physician’s Association and the Midwest Association of Haitian American Women, which she founded in Chicago. She is currently the vice president of the Chicago Glaucoma Society and is an active member of the American Glaucoma Society. Dr. Olivier has published in major peer-reviewed journals and is one of the co-authors for the glaucoma section in Clinical Eye Atlas. She is one of three editors of the book Maintaining the Target Intraocular Pressure: African American Glaucoma Specialists. She conducts regular medical missions to Haiti and serves on a number of voluntary health organizations.
Dr. Olivier is a member of the Board of Directors of Prevent Blindness America, chair of its Program & Public Health Committee and member of its Adult Vision Advisory Committee.
Cynthia Owsley, PhD, MSPH
Dr. Owsley is professor and vice chair for clinical research in the Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Owsley’s research program focuses on aging-related eye disease and vision impairment and is funded by a number of agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Research to Prevent Blindness and the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama. She has served on panels for the National Research Council including the Committee on Vision and the Committee on Disability Determination for Individuals with Vision Impairment as well as the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on the Safe Mobility of Older Persons (immediate past chair). She chairs the scientific review panel for NIH’s Center for Scientific Review that deals with biomedical research on visual processing in the brain. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Gerontology Society of America and is the recipient of the Bartimaeus Award of the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology and the Glenn A. Fry Award of the American Optometric Foundation.
Hugh R. Parry
Hugh Parry is the president and CEO of Prevent Blindness America, the oldest voluntary eye health and safety agency nationally engaged in the prevention of blindness through comprehensive programs of community service, public and professional education and research. Hugh joined Prevent Blindness America in April 2002, after 20 years in not-for-profit management. Hugh received his BA from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, his MPA from the University at Albany and his JD from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.
David B. Rein, PhD
Dr. Rein is a research economist in RTI’s Public Health Economics Program. His work focuses on outcomes-research, cost-effectiveness simulations, applied econometrics, and program evaluation. He has developed content expertise in the economics and epidemiology of vision-threatening diseases, infectious disease and childhood vaccination. He currently leads several projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration and leads the economic component of several other larger-scale evaluations. From 1996 until 2000, Rein worked as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellow in the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. He has extensive experience with quantitative and qualitative research methods and he has first-authored publications for The Lancet, Health Services Research, The American Journal of Public Health, Archives of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology (The Green Journal), The American Journal of Managed Care, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Michael X. Repka, MD
Dr. Repka has served on the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Committee of Secretaries as the secretary for federal affairs since 2005. He has served on several Academy committees including chair of the Federal Economic Policy Committee, Diagnostic and Procedural Terminology and Reimbursement Committee and the EyeNet Editorial Advisory Board. Dr. Repka is a professor of ophthalmology and a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is nationally and internationally known for his contributions in the fields of pediatric ophthalmology, strabismus, retinopathy of prematurity and pediatric neuro-ophthalmology. He received his medical degree from the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and completed his ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital. Following completion of his residency training, a fellowship was spent training in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus as well as neuro-ophthalmology at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Stephen J. Ryan, MD
Dr. Ryan is president of the Doheny Eye Institute and the Grace and Emery Beardsley professor of ophthalmology. Dr. Ryan served as chair of the USC Department of Ophthalmology from 1974 to 1995. He served as dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC from 1991 to 2004 and as senior vice president of USC from 1993 to 2004. From 1982 to 1985, he was a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Advisory Eye Council. From 1975 to 1979, Dr. Ryan served as a member of the Visual Sciences “A” Study Section in the Division of Research Grants at the NIH. Dr. Ryan is a member of numerous ophthalmologic organizations and has served as president of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology and the Macula Society. He is the founding president of the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research. Dr. Ryan was awarded his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency and chief residency at the Wilmer Ophthalmologic Institute at Johns Hopkins, where he subsequently was assistant and associate professor of ophthalmology. An internationally-recognized expert in the field of retinal diseases and ocular trauma, Dr. Ryan has provided congressional testimony on numerous occasions in support of the NIH and the National Eye Institute. Dr. Ryan is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jinan Saaddine, MD, MPH
Dr. Saaddine, team lead for the Vision Health Initiative (VHI) at the Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT), received her medical degree and ophthalmology training from Damascus University and her masters in public health from Emory University. Dr. Saaddine joined the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1998 to provide scientific/technical leadership to the DDT in the area of epidemiology and public health research of diabetes and eye disease. Prior to that, she worked as research scientist/research associate at the ocular pathology and immunology/Emory Eye Clinic where she conducted basic and clinical research in retinal diseases. As founder of the VHI, Dr. Saaddine has been heavily involved in the planning, developing and implementing of this initiative that addresses public health issues of vision loss and eye disease nationally and internationally. She helped develop a "vision module” to be included, for the first time, in the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System to enhance the state surveillance system. Dr. Saaddine, with RTI help, leads numerous cost and cost-effectiveness studies related to vision loss and eye diseases. Dr. Saaddine assumed a crucial role in planning and drafting an ambitious five-year plan for the VHI. Her expertise in the area of vision care and public health has led to numerous appointments as a member of government and professional committees. She has authored numerous peer reviewed articles on vision and public health and overall diabetes quality of care.
Madeline Spearing
Madeline Spearing has had age-related macular degeneration for over 10 years. As a result, she has lost all vision in her right eye and only has a small amount of peripheral vision in her left eye. Madeline has maintained a high level of independence, traveling around her home town of Fort Worth, Texas with the use of her white cane and city buses. After taking classes in Braille, Madeline now crochets in Braille by making knots for the Braille letters. She attends monthly meetings of the Mayor’s Committee on Disabilities, becoming an advocate for all persons with disabilities. Madeline is chair of the Fort Worth Chapter of the American Council of the Blind, serving to mentor others with vision impairments. Madeline recently participated in Prevent Blindness America’s annual Congressional lobbying day, Eyes on Capitol Hill, where she shared her “vision” of the future – one without the threat of blindness from age-related eye disease.
Jennifer Stanke
Jennifer Stanke, currently a graduate student at Ohio State University, began her career in retinal-related vision research with a passion for science, but no real personal connection to vision health. Now, however, her passion has become personal as she experiences the progression of age-related macular degeneration through her grandmother. Growing up, both of Jennifer’s parents worked, so she had the privilege of spending a great deal of time with both her grandmothers. She grew close to them, learning such diverse talents as how to cook sauerkraut with pork or “savor a combination of chardonnay and cheese curls.” In recent years, Jennifer has watched her grandmother’s quality of life diminish, drastically curtailing her previously active lifestyle. While Jennifer remains hopeful that different treatments are on the horizon, she is saddened that they may not be here in time to help her grandmother and disheartened that many young researchers are leaving the field due to low funding levels.
Joan A. Stelmack, OD, MPH
Dr. Stelmack received her OD from Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) and her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joined the medical staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Hines Blind Rehabilitation Center in 1984. At the VA, Dr. Stelmack serves as co-director of the Optometry Residency in Ocular Disease/Low Vision Rehabilitation, preceptor of a Low Vision Rehabilitation Rotation for ICO students, supervisor of the Low Vision Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic and director of the Low Vision Research Program. She has faculty appointments at ICO and the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Stelmack directed development and validation of the VA Low Vision Visual Functioning Questionnaire. She serves as Principal Investigator for the VA Low Vision Intervention Trial, a multi-center randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of low vision service delivery.
Jeff Todd
Jeff Todd joined the staff of Prevent Blindness America in early 2003 and currently serves as senior vice president, overseeing the organization’s program development and public health initiatives. Jeff’s background includes experience in government and not-for-profit environments, with a focus on prevention and community development in areas such as healthcare, youth violence and substance abuse. Jeff received his undergraduate degree in business from Indiana University in Bloomington, an MS in communications from Butler University in Indianapolis and a JD from Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. Jeff is a member of the Vision Care Section of the American Public Health Association and an associate member of the Vision Health Workgroup of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors.
Agenda | Event Details | Large-Print Program
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