CHICAGO—Prevent Blindness has announced its eighth annual Focus on Eye Health National Summit will take place on July 17, 2019, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. On July 16, Prevent Blindness will also hold its annual Eyes on Capitol Hill event, providing volunteer patient advocates with the opportunity to meet with their government representatives. The theme of this year’s summit is “A Lifetime of Vision,” and the keynote speaker will be Bill Barkley, a visually impaired adventurer, advocate, and author. 

Barkley boasts a variety of accomplishments, including being the first deaf-blind person to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, being the first deaf-blind person to complete the Boston Marathon, and leading expeditions for deaf teenagers to the Amazon jungle and the Grand Canyon.

Other presentations at this year’s annual Focus on Eye Health National Summit include: “The Scope of Vision and Eye Health–Guidance from Surveillance,” with David Rein, PhD, and John Whittenborn, NORC at the University of Chicago; “Emerging Sight–Vision and the Young Child,” Moderated by Jean Ramsey, MD, MPH, Boston University and Sandra S. Block, OD, MEd, MPH, Illinois College of Optometry, and including presentations by Alejandra de Alba Campomanes, MD, MPH, University of California, San Francisco, Dawn DeCarlo, OD, MS, MSPH, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Edwin Marshall, OD, MS, MPH, Indiana University; “Looking Forward–Promoting Sight in Young Adults,” with Kristina Beaugh, MPH, National Eye Health Education Program; “Losing Vision and Gaining Perspective,” with Bonnielin Swenor, PhD, MPH, Johns Hopkins University; “Strategic Vision: Population Health and Vision in the Military,” moderated by James Jorkasky, Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, and including presentations by Col. Mark Reynolds, MD, MPH and David Eliason, MD, DoD/VA Vision Center of Excellence; “Center on Vision and Population Health,” moderated by Heather Whitson, MD, MHS, Duke University, with a presentation by Kira Baldonado, Prevent Blindness; and “The Keystone for Independence: Low Vision, Vision Loss, and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults,” moderated by Heather Whitson, MD, MHS, Duke University, and including presentations by Bonnielin Swenor, PhD, MPH, Johns Hopkins University, Joshua R. Ehrlich, MD, MPH, University of Michigan, and Marcus Escobedo, MPA, The John A. Hartford Foundation.

In addition, Prevent Blindness will formally present Cynthia Owsley, PhD, MSPH, Nathan E. Miles chair of ophthalmology, and director of the Clinical Research Unit at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, with the 2019 Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health at the Summit.

For more information on the eighth annual Focus on Eye Health National Summit and sponsorship opportunities,  click here.