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When
11:00 AM Pacific
12:00 PM Pacific

This web seminar is part of the “Conversations with GIA” Series, sponsored by Grantmakers in Aging (GIA)

Thanks to our co-sponsors the John A. Hartford Foundation and The SCAN Foundation.

Register now

PLEASE NOTE: CEUs are not available for this web seminar.

Chris Girkin, Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Ophthalmology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), provides an overview of basic changes to our eyes as we age. Cynthia Owsley, Professor in the UAB Dept. of Ophthalmology, discusses the impact of aging-related vision changes on everyday activities such as reading, shopping, cooking, walking safely, and driving. Both speakers offer suggestions for healthy behaviors that can help protect eyesight. Torrey DeKeyser, Executive Director of the Eyesight Foundation of Alabama, offers a perspective of how one local foundation is working to address vision-related issues of older adults in community. 

Presenters:


 
Chris Girkin, M.D.,M.S.P.H., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Girkin completed his ophthalmology residency training at the Callahan Eye Hospital in Birmingham, and completed a fellowship in neuro-ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins’ Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. He completed a second fellowship at The Shiley Eye Center of the University of California, San Diego, as a Heed Glaucoma Fellow. Dr. Girkin has authored or coauthored 200 journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters in major ophthalmic publications covering neuro-ophthalmology and glaucoma.
Cynthia Owsley, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., Professor in the UAB Department Of Ophthalmology, completed her Ph.D. in experimental psychology, specializing in visual perception at Cornell University where she was a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellow. She completed her post-doctoral training in vision and aging at Northwestern University. She also completed her M.S.P.H. in epidemiology at UAB’s School of Public Health. Dr. Owsley’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1983. She is the recipient of the Glenn A. Fry Award from the American Optometric Foundation and the Bartimaeus Award from the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology.
Torrey DeKeyser, Executive Director of the Eyesight Foundation of Alabama, joined the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama in 1999, following a 20-year career in university advancement and administration within the University of Alabama system (including her alma mater, the University of Alabama, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham). Active in the philanthropic community, DeKeyser belongs to state, regional, and national funders groups, including Alabama Giving, where she has served as a past president and currently serves on their Board of Directors. She also is involved with the Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF) in Atlanta, Georgia, currently serving as the co-chair of their Governmental Affairs Committee, and as a member of the SECF EngAGEment Initiative.