Department News
New UIC Lions Club finds home in Ophthalmology
The Lions of Illinois Eye Research Institute is now home to a Lions Club at UIC.
“Establishing a Lions Club at UIC is a natural outgrowth of the close relationship between the Lions of Illinois and our University, especially the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences,” said Dr. Jose Pulido, department chair.
“Our department and the Lions share the same goal of combating vision loss and blindness,” he continued.
The Lions Clubs have served as “knights of the blind” since 1925 when Helen Keller challenged them to take up the cause of helping the vision and hearing impaired. Through a variety of international vision programs, the Lions have donated over $152-million for over 600 projects in 79 countries to improve treatment for blinding eye diseases.
At UIC, the Lions of Illinois met the need for a building devoted to eye research in 1980, when they launched the single largest Lions initiative to date, to erect the Lions of Illinois Eye Research Institute (LIERI). The LIERI building opened in 1986 and houses research laboratories dedicated to vision science. UIC’s vision research program is among the best in the nation today, leading all Illinois universities in research funding from the National Eye Institute.
On May 17 th, Georg G. Toft, chairman of the Council of Governors and John Coleman, state membership chair and past district governor inducted UIC’s charter members in the main lobby of the LIERI building. Mr. Toft noted the immeasurable contributions that department researchers have made toward preventing vision loss and blindness.
The UIC Lions Club charter members include the following individuals from the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences: Dr. Kenneth Alexander, Dr. Deepak Edwards, Dr. Nalin Kumar, Dr. David Pepperberg, Dr. Jose Pulido, Dr. Haohua Qian, Dr. Harris Ripps, Dr. Mahnaz Shahidi, Dr. Deepak Shukla, Dr. Janet Szylk, Margaret Chervinko, Julie Daraska, Maria Myrianthopoulos, and David Ramsey. Also inducted from the College of Medicine were Dr. Michael Bailie, Carl Manns, Pat Wager, and Howard Newman.
To join the UIC Lions Club, or for more information, contact Pat Wager at 413-9763 or pwager@uic.edu.