(PRESS RELEASE) CHICAGO – Prevent Blindness, the nation’s oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization, is issuing a call for nominations for the 2019 Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health. The award recognizes an individual, team or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to the field of public health and vision and eye health at a community, state, national and/or international level.
The award is named for Jenny Pomeroy, who served as CEO of Prevent Blindness Georgia from 1996 until 2013 and was a tireless advocate for the role of public health in vision and eyecare services and programs. A subcommittee of the all-volunteer Prevent Blindness Public Health and Policy Committee will review all nominations and select the award recipient.
The deadline for nominations is Dec. 13, 2018, at noon Eastern. The award consists of formal acknowledgement and a commemorative plaque to be presented at the 8th Annual Prevent Blindness Focus on Eye Health National Summit in Washington, DC, on July 17, 2019.
To receive the award, the recipient must be available to present at the 2019 Focus on Eye Health National Summit. Domestic travel expenses will be covered from anywhere in the U.S. by Prevent Blindness. If travel is international, Prevent Blindness will reimburse airfare up to $600.
“Promoting new and innovative approaches to vision and eye health challenges is essential to our mission of preventing blindness and preserving sight,” said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “The Jenny Pomeroy Award provides us the opportunity to recognize those who are successfully contributing to public health advancements that lead to proven outcomes for community-based eye health.”
The 2018 Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health was awarded to the Johns Hopkins University School-Based Eye Care Team in recognition for its work investigating and addressing vision-related problems in high-poverty schools in locations such as Baltimore and Chicago. Past recipients of this award include John E. Crews, DPA, retired from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2017), Bruce Moore, OD, retired from the New England College of Optometry (2016), and Richard Bunner, retired from the Ohio Department of Public Health (2015).
For more information on the nomination process or to submit a nomination for the Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health, visit https://www.preventblindness.org/jenny-pomeroy-award-excellence-vision-and-public-health or contact Nita Patel Sinha, director of public health, at 800-331-2020 or npatelsinha@preventblindness.org.