Sight for Souls was founded in February 2014 and registered as a non-profit in the United States in September 2014.
We are so thankful for the dedication of our board members during these first ten years.
Ronald Ferner had a 35-year career at Campbell Soup Company. He began working with Campbell in 1961 and moved from various engineering capacities to Vice President of Operations/Logistics Strategy, then VP of Manufacturing, Western Region and finally as VP of Low-Cost Business Systems across the company.
Upon his retirement from Campbell’s in 1996, Ron accepted a position at Philadelphia Biblical University (now, Cairn University) where he developed both the undergraduate and graduate programs for the new Business and Leadership School. Ron served as Dean of the School and taught business classes from 1997–2017.
Ron earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Food Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He earned an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Ron also earned a Certificate of Statistical Process Control from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Ron has served as a Board Member and advisor for a number of organizations through the years including Paul Tripp Ministries, The City School, Good Neighbors, United Way (Greater Philadelphia & Southern New Jersey and California Capital Region), YMCA (Sacramento Central and Worthington Area), International Business and Educational Consultants, and the Graduate School of Management, Business Partnership Program, University of California, Davis. Ron was a Member of The Wharton School, Manufacturing & Logistics Forum and the Mayor’s Economic Development Council for the City of Sacramento, the Sacramento Area Water Forum, and the Dean’s Advisory Council, University of California, Davis.
Ron is an Elder (emeritus) at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA, where he served for many years as a Trustee, Chairman of the Building Committee and in various other capacities.
Dr. Hwang is the Vice Chair for Education, the Chief of the Retina Division, and the Kenneth C. Swan, MD Endowed Professor of Ophthalmology at the Casey Eye Institute of the Oregon Health and Science University. A native of South Korea, he received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his M.D. from University of California San Diego. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the vitreoretinal surgical fellowship at the Casey Eye Institute.
After serving as the Assistant Chief of Service at Wilmer, Dr. Hwang joined the faculty at the Casey Eye Institute, where he has served in various roles including the director of the retina fellowship and the residency program. His areas of research include retinal imaging, particularly in diabetic retinopathy, residency education, and clinical informatics.
Dr. John H. Kempen is Director of Epidemiology for Ophthalmology, Director of Global Surgery and Health-Ophthalmology and Senior Scholar, Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute; Professor of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School (HMS); and an Affiliate in the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.
Dr. Kempen served as leader of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church from 2020-2022 during the COVID and Civil War period and is a long-time Church Council Member. In 2020, he received the American Academy of Ophthalmology Humanitarian Award for his development, clinical and teaching work in Ethiopia. His research focuses on the epidemiology and treatment of Eye Diseases in Africa and Globally, especially on ocular inflammation and infections (including trachoma).
Dr. Kempen has approximately 275 publications (taking all publication types together) and has had continuous NIH grant funding since 1998; his publications have been cited approximately 28,000 times (h-index=68, i10-index=152 as of July 15, 2023).
He, together with two other board members, founded Sight for Souls in 2014.
Tobias is the Head of M&A Security Integration for GoDaddy. He has spent 25+ years in a variety of public and private sector leadership roles, most recently as the Director of IT Integration at Microsoft. Tobias was accountable for the technology integration of Microsoft’s acquisition, joint venture, and divestiture portfolio. Prior to Microsoft, Tobias was the VP of IT for Razorfish, a leading digital advertising agency.
Tobias is an active angel investor in several Seattle area startups, as well as serving on the Board of Directors for the Wapato Point Lakeside Homeowners association. Tobias resides with his family in Bellevue, WA.
Tobias holds a B.A. in Business/Economics from Wheaton College.
After 20 years as the Medical Director of Refractive Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Krueger became the McGaw Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Director of the Truhlsen Eye Institute in 2019. His contributions to the science of ophthalmology are in the area of lasers and optics.
Dr. Krueger has clinically performed more than 20,000 refractive procedures and served as PI on numerous clinical trials. He has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Refractive Surgery, authored >175 peer-reviewed publications, lectured in more than 45 countries, and serves on numerous corporate advisory boards, and societal committees, including serving as the 2014-2015 president of the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS), from which he received the Barraquer Lecture Award in 2018 and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
Dr. Lawrence, MDiv, ThM, is an academic ophthalmologist specializing in glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness in the world. With extensive international experience, he currently serves as Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Division Director for Glaucoma at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He is a nationally recognized expert and lecturer on cataract surgery and the management of glaucoma, with numerous peer-reviewed articles in his specialty. Dr. Lawrence is an experienced educator and is heavily engaged in clinical and surgical ophthalmology resident education. He supervises an AUPO-certified glaucoma fellowship program and has mentored numerous visiting international fellows. Dr. Lawrence also coordinates a state-of-the-art surgical training lab for cataract surgery and glaucoma instruction. His research interests include treatment adherence, glaucoma surgical outcomes, and gene-based therapy for glaucoma.
Scott D. Lawrence | LinkedIn
Demissie Tadesse, MD is a leading Ethiopian ophthalmologist with 26 years of clinical experience. An exceptional anterior segment surgeon, Dr. Demissie is an honorary Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Addis Ababa University. He is an established leader of blindness alleviation programs in Eastern Africa, having provided transformational leadership as Director of Sabatia Eye Hospital in Kenya for six years. During his tenure, Sabatia became self-sustaining and one of the three highest volume ophthalmic surgical centers in Kenya. He is former President of the Ophthalmological Society of Ethiopia and Chair of the National Committee for Blindness Prevention. Dr. Demissie presently serves as Eastern Africa Regional Blindness Consultant for Christian Blind Mission International.