(Press Release) CHICAGO – Prevent Blindness, the nation’s oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization, has announced the recipient of the 2017 Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health as John E. Crews of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The award will be presented at the Sixth Annual Prevent Blindness Focus on Eye Health National Summit in Washington, D.C., on June 28.
The Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health is presented annually to an individual, team or organization that has made significant contributions to the advancement of public health related to vision and eye health at the community, state, national and/or international level. The award has been named for Jenny Pomeroy, who served as CEO of Prevent Blindness Georgia from 1996 until 2013 and was an advocate for championing the role of public health in vision and eyecare services and programs.
For more than 40 years, Crews has been dedicated to vision rehabilitation and disability research. He served as the lead scientist with the Disability and Health Team in the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities in the CDC. And he has worked for the Michigan Commission for the Blind and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Rehabilitation Research and Development Center on Aging in Atlanta. He also served as chair of the vision care section of the American Public Health Association.
Currently, he is a health scientist for the Vision Health Initiative within the Division of Diabetes Translation at the CDC in Atlanta. His specialties are vision impairment and aging, caregiving and disability, and his research interests include health disparities among people with disabilities and aging with a disability.
Crews has co-authored more than 115 publications and authored two books: “Vision Loss in an Aging Society” and “The Multiple Dimensions of Caregiving and Disability.”
“It is a great honor to be recognized by Prevent Blindness. Jenny Pomeroy was an outstanding force to promote vision and public health in Georgia and the United States, so it is a particularly gratifying to receive an award named in her honor,” Crews said.
The 2016 Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health was given to Dr. Bruce Moore, Marcus Professor of Pediatric Studies, New England College of Optometry.
“Dr. Crews has dedicated his entire career to serving the public,” said Hugh R. Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. “Further, he has been a strong partner and friend to Prevent Blindness as we have grown as a public health organization. We owe him a tremendous amount of gratitude and offer our highest praise and congratulations for his exemplary work and success in helping to improve the lives of others through his tireless research on vision and disability.”
For more information on the Jenny Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Vision and Public Health, call Prevent Blindness at (800) 331-2020 or visit preventblindness.org.