• Eleanor Faye, M.D.
  Dr. Eleanor Faye serves as the Medical Director for Lighthouse International as well as the Ophthalmological Advisor to the Lighthouse Center for Education.
  From 1965-1993 Dr. Faye served as the Director of the Lighthouse Low Vision Services. A founder and lead instructor with the Lighthouse Continuing Education Program in low vision care, Dr. Faye also lectures at universities, hospitals and agencies for the blind and visually impaired. She is an emeritus ophthalmic surgeon with the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital and with the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
  Dr. Faye's work has been widely published. Her book, Clinical Low Vision (1994), went into its second edition and was praised as a "classic work" by the New England Journal of Optometry. She has also collaborated on several books and film and videotape productions about low vision with Lighthouse Low Vision Services, the Lighthouse National Center for Vision and Aging, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Foundation for the Blind.
  

Opening Presentation

Panel I - Current Landscape

• Statistical Landscape and Prognosis Ahead
  Asel Ryskulova, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.
  Dr. Asel Ryskulova is an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics in its Office of Analysis and Epidemiology. Within her wide range of responsibilities, a large portion of Dr. Ryskulova's time and focus is spent on Healthy People 2010, which is a set of health objectives for the Nation to achieve over the first decade of the new century. Prior to this, Dr. Ryskulova was an Officer for the Epidemic Intelligence Service and was a consultant in the World Bank's Health, Nutrition, and Population department. She received both her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Kyrgyzstan and her M.P.H. at the Boston University School of Public Health.
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• Psychological Ramifications of a Life with Low Vision
  Cynthia Stuen, D.S.W., Ph.D.
  Dr. Cynthia Stuen is Senior Vice President, Policy and Professional Affairs at Lighthouse International. She oversees the Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute, the Center for Education and advocates for policy at the national, state and local levels while also maintaining involvement in international efforts to preserve sight and prevent excess disability resulting from vision impairment.
  Dr. Stuen is currently the Principal Investigator on a 3-year AHRQ grant "Creating an Evidence Base for Vision Rehabilitation." She is a consultant on a Lighthouse grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to offer innovative online training for vision rehabilitation paraprofessionals. She was the Section Editor on "Rehabilitation of Older Adults with Vision Impairment" and a chapter author in the award-winning "Lighthouse Handbook on Vision Impairment and Vision Rehabilitation" published by Oxford University Press. Her numerous publications, presentations and research endeavors cover topics of age-related sensory loss, access to environments for older adults with impaired vision and contributions older adults and their family and friends can make to program planning and service delivery. Dr. Stuen is Chair-elect of the American Society on Aging (ASA), the largest organization of professionals in the field of aging in the US. She was awarded the ASA Leadership Award in 2005.
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• Low Vision Community Support Groups
  Dan Roberts
  Dan Roberts is a visually-impaired educator, author, composer, theatrical director, and musician. He founded MD Support in 1995 as a result of his own need for support and information about central vision loss.
  Retired since 1995 from 23 years in public school education and 33 years in church music ministry, he now teaches at his own performing arts school, which he founded in 1984. In addition, he provides presentations about vision impairment for schools, community organizations, and support groups, and he instructs classes for the developmentally-disabled at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Longview Community College.
  He is the author of The First Year--Age-Related Macular Degeneration and is a consultant for pharmaceutical companies, lighting manufacturers, and dealers in protective eyewear. He is a Scholar with the Roundtable Group Expert Services Firm and a member of the low vision panel of the Society of Industry Leaders (SIL) under the auspices of Standard & Poor's Vista Research. He is a member of the Low Vision Leadership Consortium and the Low Vision Rehabilitation Group. He is also the recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Service Award presented by the American Optometric Association Low Vision Rehabilitation Section. This is the highest honor given by the LVRS to an organization or individual for contributions to low vision care and distinguished service to the general welfare of the public.
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Panel II - The Patient Perspective

• Mark Ferrell
  Mark F. Farrell is an on-air personality, talk show host for 1019 RXP FM - NY's Rock Experience. He hosts "Frequency," a current affairs, lifestyle and entertainment program on 1019 RXP. Mark was also Creative Director for Smooth Jazz CD 101.9 FM NYC where he began as a college intern. Mark produces and voices local and national commercials and has also produced movie trailers. Mark has also mixed sound for dozens of CD101.9 live concert broadcasts. He has also appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC, and NY 1 as a guest speaker on various special topics.
  Mark has Retinoschisis, which is a congenital visual impairment. At age twenty five, Mark received his driver's license with the use of telescopic glasses. Mark is active in the disabled rights movement supporting The Lighthouse International and Foundation Fighting Blindness.
  Mark currently emcees events for New Jersey Special Olympics and New York Achilles Track Club. Mark was recognized by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his mentoring effort at the New York City's Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities National Disability Mentoring Day reception.
  With a passion for multiple genres of music, Mark founded Profound Sound, a mobile Disc Jockey company.
  
  
• William A. Robinson, III
  Bill Robinson experienced a life changing hunting accident in February 2001. The accident dislodged him from his role as Chief Financial Officer of a division of a $2 billion public company. With the aid of rehabilitation consultants and devices assisting low-vision, Mr. Robinson currently works as a self-employed Certified Public Accountant specializing in financial, taxation and business planning.
  Bill has consistently been active in leadership positions with civic and charitable organizations, including A Better Tomorrow, Inc., Northside Hospital Foundation, North Fulton Community Foundation, United Way, Atlanta Food Bank as well as serving as a Trustee for the UNITE Pension Fund for a brief period of time. He has recently been featured as a speaker for the Unum Disability Group and The International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals.

Panel III - The Professional Perspectives

• Bruce P. Rosenthal, O.D., F.A.A.O.
  Dr. Bruce P. Rosenthal is the Chief of the Low Vision Clinical Practice at Lighthouse International in New York City. He is also a Professor and Chief of Low Vision Service at the Mt. Sinai Faculty Practice Plan and Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the AMD Alliance International as well as being the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. He is the Chair of the Low Vision Section of the American Optometric Association, a Diplomate in low vision of the American Academy Optometry as well as being a past-chair of both the Low Vision Section Low Vision Diplomate programs.
  Dr. Rosenthal has received many prestigious awards for his work in low vision at home and around the world including the Bietti Award from the IAPB (Italian branch of the International Association for the Blind) and the highest award given by the American Academy of Optometry, the William Feinbloom award. His lecturing has taken him around the world including China, Dubai, Singapore, and South Africa. He has, as well, been involved in the publication of many scientific publications as well as being the Editor or Co-editor of eight books on low vision including The Lighthouse Oxford Press Handbook on Vision Impairment and Vision Rehabilitation.
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• Mary Lou Jackson, M.D.
  Dr. Jackson is the Director of Vision Rehabilitation Service and a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School. In these roles, Dr. Jackson is "committed to working with patients with vision impairment so that they can confidently use strategies and devices to do things they would like to do always respecting the patient's preferences, needs and values. My aim is to provide information, education and communication to achieve the best patient-centered vision rehabilitation experience."
  Dr. Jackson's clinical and research interests include vision rehabilitation and contrast Sensitivity and visual hallucinations in patients with vision impairment, respectively. She went to medical school at McMaster University and conducted her residency at the University of Toronto.
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Panel IV - Economic Models of Care

• Large Models
  Tara A. Cortes, R.N., Ph.D.
  Dr. Cortes is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse International. Prior to joining the Lighthouse, Dr. Cortes was Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of Patient Care Operations for the Yale New Haven Health System at Bridgeport Hospital. She has a distinguished 38-year career in health care.
  Dr. Cortes has extensive and impressive clinical, managerial, administrative and academic experience working in institutions ranging from Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Medical Center; Rockefeller University and Hospital; Hunter College School of Nursing; Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine and New York University Medical center. A graduate of Villanova University and New York University, where she received her Ph.D. in Nursing Science and Research, Dr. Cortes was named a fellow in the highly competitive Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow program and has won many professional academic honors. She is a member of the Villanova University Board of Trustees.
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• Gale Watson
  Gale Watson is currently the Acting National Director for Blind Rehabilitation Service in the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., and has been the National Blind Rehabilitation Specialist in that system for 3 years. In over thirty years of low vision and blind rehabilitation teaching, Gale was worked for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind Department, the Northeast Georgia Cooperative Educational Service Agency, and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) William Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation, and at PCO, coordinating and teaching in the MS Degree program in Vision Rehabilitation. From 1988 to 2002 she was a Research Health Scientist for the VA Research and Development Center on Vision Loss and Aging in Atlanta. From 2002-2003, she completed a research and clinical sabbatical at the Kansas City VA Medical Center Visual Impairment Center to Optimize Remaining Sight. Since 2003 she has practiced low vision therapy and is Vision Rehabilitation Manager for the Atlanta VA Medical Center ophthalmology clinic.
  Gale has been Chair and Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Association for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and Education Professionals (ACVREP), and has been Chair of the ACVREP Low Vision Therapist Committee. She is twice Past-Chair of Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) Low Vision Division. She is a past Board member of Foundation Fighting Blindness (Georgia affiliate) and the American Foundation for the Blind Literacy Center, and a past Trustee of the Center for the Visually Impaired (in Atlanta). She currently serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. She is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, Optometry and Vision Science, the Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, AFB Press and the National Science Foundation. Gale is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and, she also has been an international lecturer in vision rehabilitation.
  
  
• Mid-Size Models
  James T. Deremeik, M.A.
  James Deremeik is the Educational/Rehabilitation Program Manager and a member of the faculty of the Lions Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. Mr. Deremeik holds a Master's Degree in Education and specializes in rehabilitation teaching of the blind and visually impaired.
  Mr. Deremeik serves as the chair of the AER Low Vision Rehabilitation Division #7. He is a certified Low Vision therapist and has developed outpatient low vision rehabilitation programs at both the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
  Mr. Deremeik has 25 years of experience, has won several awards for his leadership in rehabilitation of the blind and visually impaired, and has published and lectured widely.
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• Lylas G. Mogk, M.D.
  Lylas G. Mogk, M.D., is a practicing ophthalmologist and founding Director of the Visual Rehabilitation and Research Center of Michigan, part of the Henry Ford Health System. Dr. Mogk is also the Chair of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Vision Rehabilitation Committee and the SmartSight Initiative in Vision Rehabilitation and Chair of the Michigan Network for Vision Rehabilitation of Seniors.
  Dr. Mogk is a frequent presenter to professional and lay audiences on macular degeneration, coping with vision loss and vision rehabilitation. She has also the author of publications and articles, such as Macular Degeneration: The Complete Guide to Saving and Maximizing Your Sight and The History and Future of Low Vision Services in the United States (Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness).
  Dr. Mogk has received numerous awards during her career, including Honorable Mention, Crain's Detroit Health Heroes, 2004, the Secretariat Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology, 2002 and 2003, and the Literature Award, Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, 2000. Dr. Mogk received her B.A. from Vassar College, M.S. from Indiana University, M.D. from Wayne State University Medical School. Dr. Mogk conducted her Internship at St. John Hospital and Ophthalmology Residency at the Kresge Eye Institute.
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• R. Tracy Williams, O.D.
  Since 1986, Dr. Williams has served as the Executive Director of the Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation in Illinois; a nationally accredited not-for-profit agency that provides low vision rehabilitation. He is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at Loyola University and Chairman of the American Optometric Association's Low Vision Rehabilitation Section Executive Committee.
  Dr. Williams is a Board Member and Vice Chairman of the National Accreditation Council (NAC) for agencies serving the visually impaired and blind. He is also a member of JCAHPO (Joint commission of Allied Health Professionals in Ophthalmology) Low Vision Task Force as well as having an appointment with the National Eye Institute/ National Eye Health Educational Program and is Co-Chair of the Low Vision Committee.
  Dr. Williams is a frequent national and international lecturer in the field of Low Vision Rehabilitation and also participates in annual mission trips to third world countries. He is well known for his comprehensive "Head, Heart and Eyes" approach to low vision rehabilitation with his efforts to "lift human spirits" and advance independence for people with vision loss.
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• Small Independent Models
  Rebecca L. Kammer, O.D.
  Dr. Rebecca Kammer received her undergraduate degree in Optical Engineering from the University of La Verne and then her O.D. degree from the Southern California College of Optometry. Her primary didactic responsibilities lie in teaching Geometric Optics in lecture and laboratory. She is also involved in the Low Vision Rehabilitation program as a clinic, lecture and laboratory instructor. Dr. Kammer was also in private practice for four years before converting to a full time schedule at SCCO in 2003.
  Dr. Kammer is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and subsequently achieved diplomate status in the specialty of Low Vision Rehabilitation in 2006. She has lectured extensively at optometric and low vision conferences throughout the United States. She is the co-founder of the third annual Shared Visions art exhibit featuring works of art from legally blind artists from all over the world. Her humanitarian efforts include trips to Kenya, Honduras and Mexico for medical missions to the underserved rural communities.
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• Ronald J. Cole, M.D.
  Dr. Ronald Cole is a founding member of Medical Vision Technology and has been in private practice in Sacramento since 1976. During the first 20 years his emphasis was on medical and surgical vitreoretinal disorders. Dr Cole has served on many committees at Sutter Medical Center and had numerous positions in the Alta California Ophthalmological Society and the California Academy of Ophthalmology. Teaching has always been a high priority of his and he currently has an appointment as Clinical Associate Professor in the UCD Department of Ophthalmology.
  For the last 10 years, Dr. Cole has devoted the greatest part of his time to developing a low vision rehabilitation center at MVT which provides a variety of services, including the assistance of an occupational therapist to patients with permanent vision loss. His involvement in this field has been at the local, state and national level. This includes ophthalmology representative to Joint Action Committee for the Blind and Visually Impaired in California and member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Low Vision Rehabilitation Taskforce.
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