Presenter and Moderator Bios

Matthew D. Benson, MD, MSc, FRCSC
Assistant Professor & Clinician-Scientist
Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Dr. Matthew Benson is a clinician-scientist and assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Dr. Benson completed his medical school, graduate studies and ophthalmology residency training at the University of Alberta. He then completed subspecialty fellowship training in ocular genetics at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, in Maryland, USA. His clinical practice includes seeing pediatric and adult patients with inherited eye diseases, and he specializes in strabismus surgery.

Dr. Benson also leads a translational research lab at the University of Alberta. His research group investigates disease mechanisms in inherited retinal and macular disorders by generating retinal pigment epithelium from patient-derived stem cells. In addition, Dr. Benson is involved in clinical research, and he is the site principal investigator for several clinical trials, natural history studies, and patient registries, including the Foundation Fighting Blindness Clinical Consortium and the Fighting Blindness Canada Patient Registry. He works with an incredible group of staff, technicians, and trainees who all share the goal of developing treatments for patients with vision loss.

Elisabeth (Lis) Fowler, CEO
Canadian Ophthalmological Society

Elisabeth (Lis) Fowler is the CEO of the Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS). With a career spanning the health field, Lis has worked in the not-for-profit sector and pharmaceutical industry, focusing on patient outreach, research, and policy development, including roles at Ward Health Advocacy, CIHR’s Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health, and the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

Lis was part of the COS team that helped advance Bill C-284, a key step towards establishing a National Strategy for Eye Care in Canada.  She strives to drive change for patients and the profession, to ensure a robust and accessible vision health care system.

Philip Goglas II
Managing Partner
Health and Medicine Counsel

Philip Goglas II has worked with patient organizations for a decade focusing on expanding research and educating policymakers on the challenges of the chronic disease community. In addition to the chronic disease community, Philip represents the HBCU medical, dental, veterinary and pharmacy schools. Additionally, Philip focuses on minority health and health disparities research, legislation and policy. Philip has expertise in the appropriations process and advancing critical priorities of the chronic disease community through Congress. Philip previously worked for two New York House of Representatives members giving him direct exposure to the legislative process. Philip graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a B.A. in Government and Politics and from American University with a Master of Public Administration and Policy.

Dan Ignaszewski
Executive Director
National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) & Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR)

Dan serves as the Executive Director of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR)/Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR), where he oversees the organization’s strategic direction and daily operations. With over 15 years of experience in voluntary health patient advocacy, Dan brings a wealth of expertise to his role. His leadership and dedication are helping to make a lasting impact on the field of vision research. He works to accomplish this by securing significant increases in federal funding for vision research programs, strengthening relationships with key partners and stakeholders, fostering collaborative efforts to advance vision research, as well as enhancing patient advocacy efforts.

Prior to joining NAEVR/AEVR, Dan worked at the Amputee Coalition, serving as Chief Policy & Programs Officer. In this role, he spearheaded the development and implementation of strategic plans and boosted advocacy engagement with partners, stakeholders, and the community. Under his leadership, the Coalition saw a 400% increase in federal funding for community programs and substantial federal investments in orthotic and prosthetic device outcomes research. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Concentration in Business from Virginia Tech.

Jennifer Jones
President & CEO
Fighting Blindness Canada

For the past 30 years, Jennifer has worked across diverse industries including advertising, financial services, retail, and not for profit. She has devoted the past 20 years to social impact, advocacy and fundraising across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Jennifer is a leader with a people-first philosophy who builds high-performance teams to bring sustainable culture and structural change, unlocking long-term sustainable, financial success. Jennifer is known for scaling and transforming organizations including the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation and Toronto Public Library Foundation where she delivered more than $50 million through traditional fundraising and contemporary cause-marketing models to educational programming, community spaces and poverty reduction. She has an MBA from The Ivey Business School at University of Western Ontario.

Yun Liu, PhD
Senior Staff Research Scientist
Google Research

Dr. Yun Liu is a senior staff research scientist in Google Research. In this role he focuses on developing and validating machine learning for medical applications across multiple fields: pathology, ophthalmology, radiology, dermatology and more. He has published over 100 articles in venues ranging from Nature to JAMA. Yun completed his PhD at Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, where he worked on predictive risk modeling using biomedical signals, medical text and billing codes. He has previously also worked on predictive modeling for nucleic acid sequences and protein structures. Yun completed a BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University.

Linda MacLeod
Retired Attorney
Prevent Blindness ASPECT Patient Engagement Program Graduate

Linda MacLeod is a retired attorney who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose, California. Linda graduated from UC Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings College of the Law) in 1989 and practiced law for 27 years before retiring in 2016 due to her vision loss. Linda practiced in all areas of business and employment litigation and was a partner in her law firm for a decade. Recently, Linda has focused more on advocacy work for disabled individuals. In February, she successfully obtained a judgement against Uber for ride share denials, and has advocated in the areas of public transportation and accessibility.

Abubakar Sadik Mohammed, OD
Vision Science Graduate Trainee
School of Optometry, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Prevent Blindness ASPECT Patient Engagement Program Graduate

Abubakar Sadik Mohammed is an Optometrist and a Graduate research trainee at the School of Optometry, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). His research explores how the loss of synaptic proteins disrupts calcium signaling in the retina, ultimately leading to blindness. He is a science policy and patient advocacy enthusiast. He currently serves as the President of the Science Policy Advocacy Network at UAB, where he leads efforts to enhance science policy literacy among graduate students. Recognizing the urgent need for stronger scientific representation in policymaking, he is committed to bridge the gap between research, patient advocacy and policy. Outside the lab, he enjoys swimming and embarking on hiking expeditions.

Leslie Nwankwo, DNP, RN
Director of Education Services, CareBasics LLC
Prevent Blindness ASPECT Patient Engagement Program Graduate

Dr. Leslie Nwankwo, a registered nurse for 29 years, has extensive experience in community-based nursing, holding roles such as nurse navigator, director of clinical services, and academic nurse educator. She previously owned a home care agency and currently serves as an adjunct professor in the graduate nursing program at the University of St. Thomas.

Dr. Nwankwo earned her BSN from The University of Texas, an MSN in Nursing Administration from the University of Houston-Victoria, and a Doctorate in Nurse Executive Leadership with a sub-specialty in Nursing Education from the University of South Alabama.

She is a contracted vendor with the Texas Workforce Commission, providing chronic disease management education to blind and visually impaired individuals. Through her company, Care Basics LLC, she offers health education and wellness training. As an advocate for the blind and visually impaired, she shares her personal experiences to inspire and drive change through vision loss awareness.

She is a member of the Texas Organization of Nurse Leaders, Texas Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau’s Nursing Honor Society – Phi Chi Chapter. Dr. Nwankwo is also deeply involved in faith-based and community health initiatives. She enjoys reading, taking long walks with her dog and, most of all, spending time with her family.

Yvonne Ou, MD
Dr. and Mrs. Stacy J. Mettier Professor of Ophthalmology
Vice Chair of Postgraduate Education, Department of Ophthalmology
University of California San Francisco

Dr. Yvonne Ou (pronounced “Oh”) is the Dr. and Mrs. Stacy R. Mettier Jr. Professor of Ophthalmology, Vice Chair for Postgraduate Education, and Academic Director of the Glaucoma Division in the Department of Ophthalmology at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She is also the Co-Director of the UCSF-Proctor K12 Clinician Vision Scholars Program. Dr. Ou received her B.A. and M.D., both magna cum laude, from Harvard. She underwent residency training at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA, and then completed both clinical and postdoctoral fellowships at Duke University. She is the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Alcon Research Institute, the Dr. Douglas H. Johnson Award for Glaucoma Research from the BrightFocus Foundation, and the Dr. David L. Epstein Award from ARVO.

Dr. Ou specializes in treating glaucoma with medical, laser, and surgical therapies, the latter including cataract surgery, minimally invasive procedures, filtering surgery, and drainage implant surgery.

The research interests of the Ou laboratory are in glaucoma neurodegeneration, circuit disassembly and reassembly, and neuronal plasticity. The team is studying the cellular and synaptic mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell degeneration and identifying specific types of ganglion cells and circuits that are particularly susceptible, with an eye for improving diagnostic and treatment modalities for patients. The group also has developed translational applications from the team’s laboratory findings, specifically novel clinical ERG paradigms and virtual-reality based oculokinetic perimetry for glaucoma diagnostics. More recently, the Ou lab is part of an Audacious Goals Initiative team tackling barriers to retinal ganglion cell transplantation as a vision restoration strategy.

Heather Shirk Patrick
President & CEO
Prevent Blindness Texas

Ms. Patrick has spent twenty years in the non-profit community serving at the local, regional, and national levels of healthcare non-profits.  A versatile and strategic leader, she has a keen ability to leverage insights and analysis to build mission programs with maximum impact performing at high levels of effectiveness and efficiency.  These skills have played out over time in a career focused on systems and operations development; training and leadership development for nonprofit executives; strategic grant making; fundraising and campaign management.

Heather is currently the President and CEO of Prevent Blindness Texas. She is focused on leading a team across Texas to elevate vision care, improve overall health, deliver preventative screenings, navigate clients to resources, educate individuals about risk and advocate for improved access to care for clients.  In 2019, Heather was awarded the Women Who Mean Business Award by the Houston Business Journal for her outstanding leadership and excellence in the Nonprofit Industry.

Ruth Y. Shoge, OD, MPH, FAAO
Associate Clinical Professor
Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
University of California Berkeley

Dr. Ruth Shoge is currently an Associate Professor of Health Sciences and the Chief Diversity Officer at the University of California Berkeley Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science.  She received her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), where she also completed a residency in Pediatrics and Vision Therapy.  She received her Master of Public Health from Temple University with a concentration in Social and Behavioral Science.  During that time, she developed a special interest in inequities in eyecare and how to improve health outcomes in historically marginalized communities.  She has been involved in several institution-specific and national initiatives to improve education, policies, and practices within the eyecare profession.  Additionally, she started her own consulting company, RYS Consultants LLC, to provide educational opportunities and long-term DEIB planning in academic, private, and corporate settings for practitioners, student members, and leaders of the optometric community.

Dr. Shoge’s clinical interests include pediatric care, non-strabismic binocular vision disorders, vision disorders related to concussion, and vision therapy.  In the clinical setting, Dr. Shoge aims to provide and model clinical competence and cultural humility to her students as they care for their patients.  She has served as an investigator in several federally funded research studies and has had the opportunity to present nationally and internationally about binocular vision, vision therapy, the management of concussion-related vision disorders, clinical cultural humility and bias awareness training, and DEIB leadership training.

M. Roy Wilson, MD, MS
President Emeritus, Wayne State University
Distinguished Professor, Wayne State University School of Medicine

M. Roy Wilson MD, MS, is Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center and President Emeritus of Wayne State University as well as Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology. Dr. Wilson’s administrative career also includes being dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for health sciences at Creighton University, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, chair of the Board of Directors of University of Colorado Hospital, and chair of the Board of Directors of Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science.

Dr. Wilson began his academic career as an ophthalmologist and glaucoma specialist at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA, and the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science where he advanced from assistant professor in 1986 to full professor in 1994. He is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the American Ophthalmological Society and the Glaucoma Research Society. Dr. Wilson served on the Advisory Council to the NIH Director, was a member of the executive committee of the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, and chaired the Data Monitoring and Oversight Committee of both the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study III and The African American Eye Disease Study.

Among his many national awards and recognitions, Dr. Wilson is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Allegheny College, Schoolcraft College, and State University of New York; President’s Award from the American Glaucoma Society; Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology; Herbert W. Nickens Award from the AAMC; Director’s Award from the NIH; Lifetime Research Award from the W. Montague Cobb Institute; Excellence in Education Award from the National Medical Foundation; President’s Medal from Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science; Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award from Harvard Medical School, Mass Eye & Ear Infirmary. In 2022, Dr. Wilson was named Michiganian of the Year.

He has served on the governing boards of many national organizations and currently serves on the boards of Research!America, Alliance for Health Policy, the University of Miami Health System, and Blue Care Network of Michigan.

Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College, an MS in epidemiology from UCLA, and an MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in ophthalmology and fellowship in glaucoma at the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.