(PRESS RELEASE) NORWICH, VT — Effective immediately, Dr. Geoff Tabin will step down as board chair of HCP Cureblindness (Himalayan Cataract Project) but will maintain an active role on the Board as Medical Director of the global nonprofit. Long-time HCP volunteer and board member Dr. Matt Oliva will lead HCP into its exciting future as chairman of the board, assuming administrative leadership to continue the organization’s long-term development and growth.
“I am proud to have Matt taking over as chairman of the board of HCP to ensure our long-term, sustainable plans to eradicate avoidable blindness around the world. Matt has been working with me since he was a medical student, first joining me on an HCP surgical outreach in Kalimpong, India many years ago. He has superb management skills, and I am sure he will lead the organization to new heights in this role,” says Dr. Geoff Tabin.
“I’m honored to follow in Geoff’s footsteps and to see what’s next for HCP as we continue to grow into new geographies and expand our reach,” says Dr. Matt Oliva. “Geoff’s work has built the foundation on which we can continue to build.”
Tabin will remain active within the organization, shaping clinical excellence and programming priorities. Tabin’s leadership will be critical in driving innovative research and training to best build capacity at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in emerging systems.
“Geoff’s tenacity to go anywhere to cure blindness has led HCP to accomplish the unthinkable. Since 1995, HCP with partners have restored sight to more than 1.4 million people,” says K-T Overbey, CEO of HCP Cureblindness. “A true medical visionary and humanitarian, his legacy will be the millions of lives he changed, and the ripple effect the miracle of restored sight has created in communities and with families.”
Dr. Tabin has enjoyed an illustrious career that has placed purpose at its center. A Professor of Ophthalmology and Global Medicine at Stanford University, he continues to teach and mentor the next generation while shaping the future of global ophthalmology.
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HCP Cureblindness works to cure avoidable blindness for those in low- and middle-income countries where treatment isn’t available or easily accessible. HCP does this by building local capacity, ensuring quality infrastructure and equipment are available, enabling quality patient care, and aiding effective prevention.
To date, HCP with partners has restored sight to more than 1.4 million people, provided 14.5 million eye screenings, built five eye hospitals, prevented 50,000 cases of corneal blindness and trained upwards of 19,500 eye care professionals.
