Vera Wilton Expand Vera is an experienced optometrist who became involved with VAO in 2000 firstly as a fund raising member and she then completed her first assignment teaching refraction to trainee ophthalmologists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2004. 14 more projects to Ethiopia followed including teaching and outreach assignments as well as fact finding missions. She is now Country Director for Ghana as well as a Trustee and has just completed her fourth visit to Ghana working with optometry students in the University of Cape Coast. She is on the Local Optical Committee with responsibility for arranging the annual local CET course and co-ordinating the Better Care Together programme with the ophthalmology department of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust. She is also involved with the local dyslexia and autism groups. In her spare time she tries to play golf, cycles, sails and walks in the lovely Lake District where she lives.
Peter Beverley-Smith Expand Having had an early business background Peter returned to his studies in his mid-thirties to complete an Optometry degree. He is a Director at Primary Eye Care Dorset (Dorset LOC Company), Discipline Specific Practitioner for Wessex Area Team PLDP/PAG, a Facilitator for the College of Optometrists and in the process of completing a Coaching and Mentoring course with the AOP. He is currently a locum and before that he was Ophthalmic Director at Specsavers Poole.
Laura Bennett Expand Laura qualified as an optometrist in 1985 from City University, London and soon after set up an independent practice in Gloucestershire. For the last twelve years she has lived in Scotland providing optometry services in the independant, multiple and NHS sectors. Laura has completed four volunteer projects with VAO in Zambia and Burkina Faso to date and participated in The Great Ethiopian Run in 2015.
Geoffrey Ballantine Expand Geoffrey is the fifth generation of a family of optometrists and his family firm, Lizars, dates back to 1830. His enthusiasm for Vision Aid Overseas stems from his experiences working as an optometrist in Zimbabwe and Kenya. His first Vision Aid Overseas assignment was to Burkina Faso in 2010 and he has since taken part in assignments to Zambia and Ethiopia. Geoffrey is a past Chairman of the the Vision Centre Task Group. Away from optics, he is a keen golfer and skier and was Moderator of the High Constables and Guard of Honour of the Palace of Holyrood House from 2010- 2012
Peter Corbett - Honorary Treasurer Expand Peter Corbett- Honarary Treasurer Peter is an experienced Finance and General Manager. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant he spent 17 years working for Sony Music in the UK, USA and Europe, most recently as Senior Vice President Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He then spent 8 years as Finance Director of the Post Office and has spent the last 7 years working for the sight loss charity Thomas Pocklington Trust where he has been CEO since January 2011. He has also held a number of Trustee roles both within the sight loss sector and elsewhere including the British Lung Foundation and the charity arm of a leading housing association.
Professor Nora Colton - Chairman Expand Professor Nora Colton - Chairman Professor Nora Ann Colton is Director of Education at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital where she oversees the development of a joint education strategy aimed at bringing these two organisations together to offer world leading education in vision and eye health. Nora was previously the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) at the University of East London where she oversaw all academic affairs. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She serves as a nonexecutive and governor on a number of boards. Before coming to the UK, she was a Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Drew University in New Jersey, USA. She received her D.Phil. from St. Antony's College, Oxford University, in economics with a specialisation in the Middle East. She is fluent in Arabic. She has been a visiting Professor at American University in Beirut and the University of Electronic Science and Technology in Chengdu, China.
Lucy Devine Expand Lucy is delighted to be a part of the VAO Board. She has been involved with sensory loss charities for nearly ten years, and VAO’s commitment to local sustainability is particularly important to her. Professionally, Lucy is a highly experienced governance adviser, with more than 20 years’ experience of governance and change management delivery. This has included supporting governments of the UK, Africa, the UAE and Afghanistan, and holding senior roles in a national and international NGO and a global consultancy firm. Lucy's skills include strategic analysis, project and programme management, Board and Secretariat management, building numerical and financial confidence in client and internal teams, facilitation, business process reengineering, process mapping, change management, relationship management, business case development, risk management, content writing, presentation delivery and training (particularly Assertiveness, English Writing Skills and Numerical Confidence). Lucy speaks Swahili and French, is a PRINCE2 practitioner and is currently studying for the Institute of Governance Company Secretary Qualifying Scheme (Diploma in Governance already achieved). For fun, Lucy knits obsessively and swims outside in the cold.
Kajal Shah Expand Kajal graduated as an optometrist from Aston University in 1998. After graduation, she completed her PhD in developing competency frameworks for eye care personnel in Mozambique in 2015 through the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the Brien Holden Vision Institute. Since 2015, she has led an Irish Aid funded workshop (as part of the Human Resources for Eye Health program) to develop competency frameworks in four more countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, Kajal is a director of a Boots Opticians franchise, a post-doctoral researcher at the DIT, and the clinical governance lead for Primary Eye care Hertfordshire. Her current research interests include: working with the African Vision Research Institute on systematic reviews of refractive error, on a child eye health project in Southern Africa, and supervising PhD students. Her passion for working in training eye care personnel in developing countries stems from being brought up in Kenya and experiencing the inequities in eye care provision.
Stephen Thompson Expand Stephen Thompson is a social scientist who has worked in international development for over a decade. Stephen is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex - the number one ranked Development Studies institute in the world. He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He primarily works on the Inclusion Works programme, which focuses on the economic empowerment of persons with disabilities in low income settings. He has worked for both research institutes and non-government organisations in both Europe and Africa. He has researched and published studies on blindness and visual impairment, with a particular focus on human resources for health and uncorrected refractive error. He completed his doctorate at the National Optometry Centre, Dublin Institute of Technology, as an African Vision Research Institute Post Graduate Student. His thesis was on the social and economic impact of visual impairment in Mozambique. Stephen previously worked on the Knowledge and Evidence for Development programme at IDS, assisting the UK Department for International Development with evidence use and policy creation. Stephen was formally the Project Manager for the Mozambique Eyecare Project, where he spent a number of years developing the optometry programme at Universidade Lurio, Mozambique. He also worked for Vision Aid Overseas between 2007 and 2009.
Ronnie Graham Expand Born in Scotland, Ronnie Graham graduated from Edinburgh University in 1974 with an MA in History and in 1975 with a Dip. Ed. He was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship and undertook 4 years of post-graduate work at the University of Ghana (1975-1979) resulting in his first book, ‘The International Aluminium Industry and the Third World’. In 1980 he was appointed to the Dept. of History at the University of Maiduguri, northern Nigeria where he worked until 1985, publishing his second book, The Life of Major Hama Kim, University of Marburg. In 1986, he joined VSO as Country Director in Belize, the Caribbean and Zambia before joining Help Age International as Country director, Tanzania. By then, he had produced a 2 volume History of African Popular Music, Pluto Press, 1988 and 1993. The work in Tanzania included the development of the Zanzibar Eye Health Programme with significant investments in Human Resources for eye Health (HReH), the construction of 2 eye departments and the development of the PEC approach. Other priorities included responding to the Rwandan refugee crisis in (1994-97) and establishing a national age care organisation (SAWATA). He later joined Sightsavers in 1997 as Regional Director for South Asia and the Caribbean. During his time with Sightsavers, his key achievements included; commissioning 2 national blindness surveys, the Bangladesh Childhood Cataract Campaign, establishing optometry training in the Caribbean, supporting PEC in Sri Lanka and the EU funded 10 District Programme in Pakistan. He was instrumental in establishing the IAPB Low Vision Working Group following the successful global conference on Low Vision in Hong Kong in 1999. Recently, Ronnie published his fifth book, Zanzibar: A People’s History before retiring in June 2017, to become an independent consultant with a focus on HReH and strategic advocacy.
Professor Hannah Faal Expand Born in Calabar, Nigeria; Hannah received the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1975 before relocating to The Gambia in 1980 with her family to work as the sole ophthalmologist, serving a population then of 800,000. She initiated the concept of comprehensive national eye care programming resulting in a fall in the prevalence of blindness from 0.7% to 0.4% between 1986-1996. Hannah is internationally recognised as one of the founders of the VISION 2020 initiative and served as President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) from 1999-2004. Hannah has also served as an advisor to the Prevention of Blindness programme of the World Health Organization (WHO), contributing to the focus on refractive error, low vision services and inclusive education. Active in research, she has authored over 60 publications with over 2000 citations and is a reviewer for journals. On retirement in 2011, Hannah took on an adjunct professorship in international eye health in Nigeria. She is also currently Trustee of the Moorfields Korle Bu Trust, member Scientific Advisory Board of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Global Advisory Board of Our Children’s Vision and chairs the Africa Research Vision Institute.
Ian P Davies Expand Ian is an optometrist and now works as an independent motivational speaker, coach and business consultant. After qualifying in 1983 he worked in private practice, the hospital eye service and academia before moving into the contact business working first for Allergan and, for the past 26 years, for Johnson and Johnson. He has extensive multi-national board level experience in the vision care industry working across multiple functions including professional education, marketing, sales force effectiveness and compliance. He established THE VISION CARE INSTITUTE® as a major training facility in Europe and oversaw the development of Johnson & Johnson’s partnership program Sight for Kids® with the Lions Club International Foundation which has provided screening and treatment for over 24 million children in Asia over the past 10 years. He has co-authored 2 text books on contact lens practice and published multiple papers in both peer reviewed and other publications. He is also a trustee of the World Optometric Foundation and a Senior Court Assistant of The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers.