Moran Eye Center Endowed Chairs Program 2023

The John A. Moran Eye Center

Celebrating Endowed Chairs and Professorships and the generous donors who made them possible.

Endowed CHair Even Thursday, June 15, 2023

Celebrating

Remarkable Achievements

Endowed Chair Even

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Tonight, we celebrate the generous donors of endowed chairs and professorships and the outstanding scholars who hold these positions at the John A. Moran Eye Center. Endowed positions are a unique partnership, and the ultimate beneficiaries are the patients, community, and society served through these investments in the future.

To the donors… endowed positions serve as a living memorial by linking their names, or one they honor, in perpetuity to the succession of scholars whose work their gifts support. Gifts for endowments offer the promise of enduring impact.

To the chair and professorship holders… appointments signal recognition—to colleagues and to the world beyond academia—both of personal achievements and of the institution’s commitment to their fields of inquiry and teaching. It provides much-needed financial support to advance research, education, and patient care.

To the university... endowed chairs and professorships provide the means to attract, retain, and honor distinguished faculty members, forming a bedrock upon which the university’s excellence is secured.

We are grateful to all of the donors who, across generations, make the Moran Eye Center the object of their lasting and generous philanthropy.

Welcome

Randall J Olson, MD

Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah

The Cumming Presidential Endowed Chair

CEO, John A. Moran Eye Center

Director, University of Utah Vision Institute

D inner

Presentation and Remarks

Randall J Olson, MD

Mary H. Boesche

Endowed Chair

Alessandra Angelucci, MD, PhD

Cumming

Presidential Endowed Chair

Randall J Olson, MD

Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke

Endowed Chair

Jeff Pettey, MD, MBA

Val A. and Edith D. Green

Presidential Endowed Chair

Paul S. Bernstein, MD, PhD

Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch

Presidential Endowed Chair

Nick Mamalis, MD

Jon M. Huntsman

Presidential Chair

Steffen Schmitz-Valckenberg, MD

John A. Moran

Presidential Endowed Chair

Gregory S. Hageman, PhD

Jack R. and Hazel M. Robertson

Presidential Endowed Chair

Iqbal “Ike” K. Ahmed, MD, FRCSC

Ralph and Mary Tuck

Presidential Endowed Chair

Wolfgang B. Baehr, PhD

Effective July 1, 2023

Liliana Werner, MD, PhD, will become the Chair

John E. and Marva M. Warnock

Presidential Endowed Chair

Craig J. Chaya, MD

John Frederick Carter

Endowed Professorship

David Krizaj, PhD

A Utah native, Mary H. Boesche, graduated from Logan High School in 1934 and continued her education at Utah State Agricultural College in Logan and then at the LDS Business College in Salt Lake.

In 1940, Mary moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked for the Treasury and Justice departments. Her dynamic and gracious personality soon qualified her for a public relations position in the Office of the Federal Aviation Department.

After her marriage, Mary and her husband, Frank, ran a kennel business in Virginia. Mary also sold real estate in the greater Washington, D.C. area until she was named director of public relations for Dulles International Airport.

Her work at Dulles brought some of the happiest experiences of her life. She was well loved by her colleagues and took great joy in greeting and welcoming the great variety of guests who came through her office. She retired after more than two decades at Dulles.

Mary was known for her loving personality and a genuine love and empathy for others, exemplified as she established a professorship in honor of friends Maureen K. Lundergan, MD, and Mano Swartz, MD, and to support eye disease research. The professorship is now a chair.

Alessandra Angelucci, MD, PhD, is a National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grantee who researches visual cortex circuitry and function to understand how vision occurs in the brain and how it might be reproduced.

She is studying the role of inhibitory neurons—which tell other neurons not to fire—and how visual signals from the eye are transformed as they travel forward and backward along a hierarchy of specialized visual cortical areas. Higher visual areas generate an internal model of the visual world and communicate this model to lower visual areas through feedback connections. Dr. Angelucci’s research has clarified the organization and function of these feedback connections.

Dr. Angelucci and her team have also recently developed a device that will support unprecedented investigations of neural function and has the potential to become a next-generation visual cortical prosthesis to provide a form of artificial sight to people who have lost their vision. Called the Utah Optrode Array, the device uses optogenetics to selectively activate neurons using light, allowing brain researchers to activate neurons more precisely.

Used as a visual prosthesis, this form of artificial vision could restore independence, allowing someone who has lost sight to navigate their environment or even read.

Mary H. Boesche

Alessandra Angelucci, MD, PhD

The Cumming Foundation, directed by John D. Cumming, David E. Cumming, and Annette P. Cumming, recently established the Cumming Presidential Endowed Chair in honor of Moran Eye Center CEO Dr. Randall J Olson. It marks a lifetime of care, friendship, and support. The chair supports cuttingedge vision research underway at Moran.

John’s struggle to keep his eyesight started in his early teens with the first of many issues. His father, Ian, turned to Dr. Olson, for help. The relationship between patient and doctor has spanned more than 30 years and more surgeries than Cumming cares to remember.

John serves as a board member and trustee of the Cumming Foundation. He is the Co-Chairman of Cumming Capital Management and is the Executive Chairman of POWDR. He is the Chairman of Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort and Chairman of the Crimson Wine Group. He is also a trustee and Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Foundation and Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Park City Community Foundation.

David serves as the Chairman and Trustee of the Cumming Foundation. He is the Co-Chairman of Cumming Capital Management and serves as the Secretary of the board of POWDR. He also serves on the board of Snowbird.

Annette serves as the Vice President and Executive Director of the Cumming Foundation. She is an alumna of the University of Utah and the College of Nursing. The College of Nursing building is named in her honor. She has been involved with many worthwhile philanthropic endeavors, including: University of Utah National Advisory Council, College of Nursing Advisory Council, David Eccles School of Business National Advisory Board, National Advisory Council for the Utah Symphony and Opera, Planned Parenthood, ACCION USA, and the Guttmacher Institute.

Randall J Olson, MD, is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, CEO of the Moran Eye Center, and director of the University of Utah Vision Institute.

Specializing in external eye diseases and anterior segment disorders, Dr. Olson is a world-renowned expert in cataract surgery complications and intraocular lens surgery. He is also the longest-serving chair of any academic ophthalmology department in the country.

Dr. Olson leads more than 500 employees working to achieve Moran’s vision that no person with a blinding condition, eye disease, or visual impairment should be without hope, understanding, and treatment. Under Dr. Olson’s leadership, the Moran Eye Center has become a premier institute for ophthalmology outreach and the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences offers one of the nation’s top educational programs. Moran is also home to 17 innovative research labs and centers, where internationally awarded faculty are developing the treatments of tomorrow.

Dr. Olson has served as President of the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology and earned many of his field’s highest honors. These include the 2012 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Binkhorst Medal, the 2014 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Kelman Award, and the 2015 AAO Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Olson received the Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology and in 2021 earned the rank of Distinguished Professor.

He was also named to the 2023 Power List of the 100 most influential people in ophthalmology worldwide by The Ophthalmologist magazine.

Randall J Olson, MD

The Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation provided a transformative $1 million gift to support sight-saving outreach work in Utah and around the world when they created the Moran Eye Center Global Outreach Division’s first endowed directorship.

The ability to see the need and make a difference by supporting health care and humanitarian causes in Utah runs long and deep in the Dumke family, starting with the philanthropy of Dr. E.R. and Edna Wattis Dumke in the 1950s. Their philanthropic work, carried on by their children and grandchildren today, has left its mark on countless lives and institutions.

The endowed chair came as part of a major donation by the Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation to University of Utah Health.

The philanthropic relationship with Moran began in 2003 when Zeke Dumke Jr. realized that the rapidly growing eye center needed a larger building. He made a gift of $100,000 so a surveyor could get started on what would become Moran’s current 210,000-square-foot home.

The architecturally stunning center opened in 2006 with two pavilions—one to provide clinical and surgical care, and the other to house Moran’s worldclass research labs.

Martha Ann “Markey” Dumke Healy, Zeke’s sister, was also a major investor in the new building. She joined with younger brother Ed Dumke to name Moran’s clinical and surgical care wing the Dr. E.R. & Edna Wattis Dumke Clinical Pavilion.

Jeff Pettey, MD, MBA, Moran’s Clinical Vice Chair, is the inaugural holder of the Dumke Endowed Chair for Global Outreach.

The Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke Foundation established the endowed chair to promote excellence in teaching, research, and leadership in global outreach. Dr. Pettey co-created Moran’s Operation Sight program, which provides cataract surgery for underserved Utahns, and has served as co-medical director of the Global Outreach Division.

In 2020, Dr. Pettey, then Moran’s Vice Chair of Education, launched Moran’s Global Ophthalmology Resident Scholar Program to expand Moran’s institutional commitment to outreach work.

With the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), Dr. Pettey has performed committee work leading global ophthalmology education activities for residents and fellows. He chaired the AAO’s Surgical Education and Simulation course and completed five years on the Committee for Resident Education, where he created a surgical simulation resource guide published on the AAO website. Dr. Pettey has been an invaluable resource for peer institutions transitioning to the AAO-recommended integrated internship model already used by Moran.

In his clinical practice, Dr. Pettey specializes in all forms of cataract surgery and complex anterior segment surgery. His research interests include phacoemulsification platform efficacy and efficiency, and ophthalmology training methods and outcomes.

His honors include the 2017 AAO Artemis Award in recognition of his efforts to go above and beyond for his patients.

Jeff Pettey, MD, MBA

For Val and Edith Green, wealth, beyond the pocketbook, was always measured by a generosity of spirit.

They are remembered for their kindness—they were active in their Layton community and donated to the parks program. They were also generous donors to the University of Utah, culminating in this chair established in honor of the excellent care provided to Val by Dr. Mano Swartz, as well as the outstanding work of Drs. Julia Kleinschmidt and Alan Crandall.

Val was born in Layton, Utah. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1944 and served in Germany and France before returning home to attend the U. He rejoined the Air Force upon his graduation in 1952.

Edith was born in Delhi, Louisiana, spending her early years in Monroe before moving to Arkansas where she graduated from Henderson University in 1949.

The two met on a blind date while he was stationed in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she taught English at a junior high school. They married in 1955.

Soon after, Val joined the Coca-Cola Company. After a stint in Salt Lake City, the family (now with the addition of son Val John and daughter Holly) moved to Portland, Oregon, where Val coordinated Coca-Cola’s advertising and promotions for 14 states.

After Val retired in 1984 due to failing eyesight, the Greens returned to Utah. In appreciation for Val’s care, the Green family established this chair to support Moran faculty who are dedicated to expanding ophthalmological knowledge and who exemplify effective and efficient eye care delivery.

Dr. Bernstein is a retinal specialist focused on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the role of nutrition and environment in its treatment and prevention; inherited retinal and macular dystrophies; and surgical treatment of vitreoretinal disorders.

He is a leading expert in nutritional interventions against inherited and acquired macular diseases. Dr. Bernstein was a principal investigator and executive committee member for the AREDS2 study that led to the formulation of a nutritional supplement for AMD patients.

His research lab has also made a series of groundbreaking discoveries that will change the paradigm of diagnosis and treatment for a host of diseases using the first Heidelberg Engineering Spectralis-based Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Ophthalmoscope (FLIO) in the United States.

With this non-invasive technology, Dr. Bernstein has identified metabolic cell signatures that will allow for earlier diagnosis of AMD and macular telangiectasia, a rare eye disease that causes central vision loss. He is now working with colleagues to expand the use of FLIO as a safe, low-cost method to detect Alzheimer’s disease.

With a new National Eye Institute grant, Dr. Bernstein is studying the role of genetic testing for AMD risk in pre-symptomatic children of AMD patients. He has also tested and validated non-invasive measurement of skin carotenoids as a biomarker for vitamin A deficiency in Nepal.

His awards include the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s 2021 Mildred Weisenfeld Award.

Paul S. Bernstein, MD, PhD, is the Moran Eye Center’s Vice-Chair for Clinical and Basic Science Research.

Paul S. Bernstein, MD, PhD

When retired Clorox Company CEO and President Calvin S. Hatch and his wife, JeNeal, decided to fund a $1 million endowed chair in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Utah, they had just one way to describe their experience. “This is fun!” Cal said enthusiastically, “JeNeal and I are delighted to have the opportunity to fund this endowment and establish the chair.”

These words exemplify the spirit of giving that was a hallmark of Cal and JeNeal. From family and friends to business and civic associates, others’ lives were enriched by the Hatches’ contagious enthusiasm and willingness to share their time, talents, and resources so generously.

Seeing a clear need for additional research in macular diseases, which affected Cal’s vision, the couple and their two daughters, Julie Hatch and Marcia Thomas, agreed that establishing an endowment to provide such support would bring them satisfaction and make a difference.

The University recognized Cal with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1994 for his business, civic, and philanthropic achievements.

Cal and JeNeal were active members of the University’s Health Sciences Council. The couple established the Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch Prize in Teaching at the U, which includes a $5,000 annual award to an outstanding professor.

They were also generous donors to athletics, Huntsman Cancer Institute, the David Eccles School of Business, and Red Butte Garden and Arboretum.

Nick Mamalis, MD, is Director of Moran’s Ophthalmic Pathology Laboratory and Co-Director of the Intermountain Ocular Research Center (IORC).

Based at the Moran Eye Center, the non-profit IORC performs research involving intraocular lenses used to replace the eye’s natural lens during cataract and other surgeries. In addition, the Center provides services and education to surgeons, clinical ophthalmologists, their patients, and intraocular lens manufacturers worldwide.

Dr. Mamalis has also spent more than a decade helping hospitals around the country protect patients from a rare but potentially sight-threatening inflammatory syndrome known as TASS (Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome).

His clinical practice focuses on comprehensive ophthalmology, including cataracts and other anterior ocular surgeries.

Dr. Mamalis is a past president of the 8,000-member American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He is also the editor emeritus of the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and is the author of over 280 peer-reviewed publications, one textbook, and 48 book chapters.

Dr. Mamalis lectures throughout the world and was selected by Cataract and Refractive Surgery Today as one of 50 international opinion leaders. He was named by The Ophthalmologist magazine to its 2023 Power List of the 100 most influential people in ophthalmology worldwide.

His awards include the 2015 Life Achievement Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the 2013 Binkhorst Medal from ASCRS.

Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch

Nick Mamalis, MD

Jon and Karen Huntsman had unfortunate firsthand experiences with the impacts of vision loss on a loved one.

Karen’s father, David B. Haight, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apostle, was publicly open about his declining eyesight due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

In 2018, the Huntsmans made a significant gift to support AMD research at the Moran Eye Center and provide hope that the sight-stealing disease could be treated. The gift established another remarkable legacy for health care at the University of Utah associated with the Huntsman name.

The same year, the University of Utah and the Huntsman Foundation announced the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chairs to honor the late businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

The Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chairs provide sweeping support to academic researchers, educators, and clinicians spanning a wide array of fields.

University of Utah faculty members selected as Jon. M. Huntsman Presidential Chairs have demonstrated excellence in research, clinical care, and career progression. They reflect diverse academic disciplines, with appointments in biochemistry, neurosurgery, nursing and biomedical informatics, chemistry, ophthalmology, and neurobiology and anatomy.

Steffen Schmitz-Valckenberg, MD, is Director of the Utah Retinal Imaging Reading Center (UREAD). His research focuses on multimodal retinal imaging technologies and fine-detailed functional testing in macular and retinal diseases. Analysis of this imaging helps develop new therapies by establishing, developing and validating targeted outcomes during clinical trials.

He is known as a worldwide expert in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). As founding director of the GRADE Reading Center in Bonn, Germany, and UREAD, he has been involved in several clinical trials as part of the systematic and standardized analysis of imaging data on an international level in AMD and other retinal diseases.

UREAD is analyzing images from patients entered in a current clinical trial for a genetic therapy developed by Moran’s Sharon Eccles Steele Center for Translational Medicine to treat a common form of AMD.

Dr. Schmitz-Valckenberg is also a clinician who specializes in the medical and surgical treatment of AMD and vitreoretinal-macular diseases. He earned his medical degree at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

As part of a medical student scholarship, he spent part of his final year rotations at Columbia University in New York City. He was trained in ophthalmology at the University of Bonn, Germany, and at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Later, he worked as a senior consultant and was the deputy medical director at the University of Bonn Department of Ophthalmology.

His honors include being named by The Ophthalmologist to its Power List 2017: Top 50 Rising Stars.

The vision for the John A. Moran Eye Center became a reality thanks to a generous donation from University of Utah alumnus John A. Moran.

A noted investor and philanthropist, John is the retired chairman of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation, a private holding company with an international portfolio including businesses engaged in manufacturing, distribution, industrial and financial services, and real estate development.

Before joining Dyson-Kissner-Moran in 1967, John was a vice president of Blyth & Company Inc. investment bankers. Born in Los Angeles, he graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in banking and finance in 1954. Moran spent three years in the U.S. Navy and served as an intelligence officer on the staff of the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet from 1955-1958.

John served as Chairman of the Republican National Finance Committee from 1993-1995. He subsequently became National Finance Chairman of the Dole for President Campaign and later served as co-chairman of the Republican Leadership Council of Washington, D.C.

He has been a member of the National Advisory Council for the University of Utah, where he holds an honorary Doctorate of Law, and sits on the Moran Eye Center Advisory Council. His national honors include the 2012 Horatio Alger Award.

He established this chair in honor of Dr. Randall J Olson.

S. Hageman, PhD, directs Moran’s Sharon Eccles Steele Center for Translational Medicine (SCTM), which works to quickly and cost-effectively turn scientific discoveries into clinically effective diagnostics and therapies for blinding eye conditions.

With the support of committed donors, Dr. Hageman has turned a series of discoveries into a new treatment hoped to halt, or even prevent, a prevalent form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Dr. Hageman and his team have developed new AMD treatments based on years of genetic research that demonstrate AMD is at least two biologically distinct diseases. The first new AMD therapy is now being tested in patients as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial.

An ongoing SCTM study has enrolled over 5,000 people with and without AMD or a family history of the disease and has a repository of more than 60,000 DNA samples from other studies. Researchers are using the data to better understand the underlying genetic and biological bases of AMD.

Since no other organism has AMD, scientists must work with study subjects and donated human tissue. The SCTM has the world’s largest donor eye tissue repository of its kind.

Dr. Hageman is an active member of professional and honorary organizations and has served on numerous national and international advisory boards, service panels, and review committees. He has also been an advisor to numerous pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies.

Gregory S. Hageman, PhD

Gregory

Hazel Robertson recognized that a university is only as good as the faculty it is able to recruit and retain. Further, she understood that the University of Utah needed endowed funds to support the clinical and research opportunities of outstanding university faculty.

In 2013, after consulting with her dear friend Naoma Tate, Hazel created a bequest that established three presidential endowed chairs at University of Utah Health. The Moran Eye Center, Huntsman Cancer Institute, and Department of Orthopedics are the grateful beneficiaries.

The Jack R. and Hazel M. Robertson Presidential Endowed Chair at the Moran Eye Center was funded in 2018. Following the instructions Hazel established in her will, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Chair and Moran CEO Dr. Randall J Olson organized a search committee composed of prominent faculty members to nominate and select the inaugural chair holder.

Highly regarded for her outstanding character, compassion, and personal ethics, Hazel served as a model of excellence in the community, the University of Utah, and the State of Utah. She was dedicated to helping others, and those who knew her describe her as “a wonderful, good, and kind person whose friendship was cherished.”

Hazel was born and raised by her single mother in Kansas, where she met the love of her life, Jack Robertson. They moved to Utah to support Jack’s career in the oil and gas industry. Over the years, Jack and Hazel were benefactors to many areas at the University of Utah.

Iqbal “Ike” K. Ahmed, MD, FRCSC, is recognized as one of the most experienced surgeons for complex eye conditions worldwide and is renowned for his groundbreaking work in the surgical treatment of diseases, including glaucoma and surgical complications. He has an international patient base and has been named multiple times as one of the top most influential ophthalmologists worldwide by The Ophthalmologist magazine.

Dr. Ahmed has done pioneering work in glaucoma therapeutics and coined the term micro-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) as a new genre of surgical approaches and devices. Dr. Ahmed also has designed innovative diamond scalpels for surgery; microsurgical instrumentation; and other devices, implants, and techniques to manage dislocated cataracts, iris reconstruction, and glaucoma.

In addition to his clinical practice, he serves as Director of Moran’s Alan S. Crandall Center for Glaucoma Innovation. The center conducts research to understand glaucoma’s impact on vision and the genetics of the disease. It is also developing new diagnostic tools and designing safer and more effective treatments that will increase access to care.

Dr. Ahmed consults for more than 50 medical companies and has authored more than 170 professional publications and several books. He has been the principal investigator for numerous research studies and served as a medical monitor for many clinical trials. He has made over 1,000 scientific presentations and sits on the editorial boards of several ophthalmology publications.

He has received many of the field’s top awards, including the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery’s Binkhorst medal.

Iqbal “Ike” K. Ahmed, MD, FRCSC

Mary Tuck was a native of Kentucky and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology.

In 1931, she married Ralph Tuck, who worked as the chief geologist for the government-owned Alaska Railroad. The couple moved to Salt Lake City in 1946, where Ralph worked for the United States Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company.

Mary had deep love of poetry, enjoyed gardening, and served as chair of the Auxiliary of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. Ralph died in 1989. Following his death, Mary established this professorship in honor of Dr. Randall J Olson in the hope that more solutions might be found for the loss of sight.

Liliana Werner, MD, PhD

Liliana Werner, MD, PhD, Co-Director of the Intermountain Ocular Research Center based at Moran, will be honored with the Ralph and Mary Tuck Presidential Endowed Chair upon the retirement of Dr. Baehr.

Dr. Werner’s research focuses on ophthalmic implantable biodevices, particularly intraocular lenses (IOLs). She is the author of more than 360 peer-reviewed publications

Wolfgang B. Baehr, PhD, joined the Moran Eye Center in 1995 and his work has impacted the understanding of phototransduction—the process by which light is converted into electrical signals in the retina.

Among his many discoveries, Dr. Baehr is known for identifying the second and third components of the phototransduction “signaling” cascade. His was the first breakthrough since the light-sensing pigment rhodopsin was identified 100 years earlier. In 1992, he generated the first transgenic mouse model for a mutation linked to dominant pigment rhodopsin, a group of blinding genetic disorders.

Dr. Baehr, who has received some of the highest honors in the field including the 2014 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Proctor Medal, will retire in July.

and book chapters, co-edited three books, and is widely recognized as the foremost authority in the IOL field.

Among her many honors: She recently broke ground as the first woman to receive the prestigious American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Charles D. Kelman Award and Lecture. The Ophthalmologist magazine named her to its 2023 Power List of the 100 most influential people in ophthalmology worldwide. She is also the first woman and the first Latina to hold the position of U.S. Associated Editor for the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.

Since 2020, Dr. Werner has served as Moran’s inaugural Vice-Chair for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Ralph and Mary Tuck

Wolfgang B. Baehr, PhD

John E. and Marva M. Warnock have been longtime supporters of the Moran Eye Center’s international outreach efforts. This chair, created to support global outreach work, is another testament to their legacy of philanthropy at the University of Utah.

John is known around the world for creating a way for people to exchange documents electronically—the now ubiquitous PDF, or portable document format. As an undergraduate at the University of Utah, Warnock developed a breakthrough algorithm that tells a computer how to render a complex image.

Marva, a former partner and graphic designer at Marsh Design in Palo Alto, California, is known not only for creating the iconic Adobe logo, but also as a designer for nonprofit organizations. She is a longtime supporter of civic engagement and human rights and has a passionate interest in the rights of all people, the arts, and technology.

In 2003, the pair secured the future of the John E. and Marva M. Warnock Engineering Building. Completed in 2007, it represents one of the most sophisticated engineering school facilities in the country. Across campus, the Warnocks have endowed chairs for faculty members in mathematics, computer science, and art.

At the Moran Eye Center, the Warnocks have supported Moran’s Global Outreach Division, which works to create sustainable eye care systems in developing countries by teaching and training doctors and nurses. In Utah, it works to reach underserved populations, providing eye care on the Navajo Nation and to uninsured, homeless, and former refugee populations.

Craig J. Chaya, MD, is Senior Medical Director of Moran’s Global Outreach Division and passionate about fighting preventable blindness worldwide. The Warnock Presidential Endowed Chair agreement supports an ophthalmologist who is passionate about outreach and who shares Moran’s commitment to fighting preventable blindness worldwide.

A glaucoma specialist, Dr. Chaya received training in international ophthalmology as a Himalayan Cataract Project/Freedom Foundation Fellow in Kathmandu and Hetauda, Nepal, and volunteered on many outreach trips locally and internationally. His travels to serve as a volunteer and consultant on humanitarian trips include Guam, Micronesia, Ghana, Tanzania, Haiti, Thailand, and Nepal.

On the local outreach front, Dr. Chaya helped launch the first study of its kind with the Utah Assessment and Review of Community Health Eye Care Study (ARCHES). The study surveyed the eye care needs of residents of the Navajo Nation, people experiencing homelessness, former refugees, and the underinsured or uninsured.

The top priority identified in the study was diabetic retinopathy screening and care. Other needs include vision screening for children, access to eyeglasses, and improved access to and awareness of vision care services.

Dr. Chaya specializes in the medical and surgical management of adult and pediatric cataracts, glaucoma, and anterior segment surgery. He trains Moran residents and glaucoma fellows. His research interests include the management of cataracts, glaucoma, and anterior segment reconstruction.

George William and Beatrice Brain Carter established the Carter professorship in memory of their son, John Frederick Carter, who passed away at age 9.

George graduated from the University of Utah in 1933 in mechanical engineering and also earned a master’s degree in the subject. He went on to teach mechanical engineering at the U for 13 years.

George was involved in the beginning of the missile and space age, working for Aerospace Co. in California. After his retirement, the Carters returned to Salt Lake City. George served as a member of the Health Sciences Council at the University of Utah.

Dr. Krizaj and his lab team have conducted groundbreaking research to help patients with glaucoma, a disease that can cause blindness as increases in the eye’s fluid pressure damage the optic nerve responsible for carrying visual information to the brain. Yet, exactly how cells in the eye sense and interpret mechanical signals such as pressure has not been understood.

Dr. Krizaj has worked to understand these mechanisms and has developed a new therapy. The therapy aims to lower eye pressure and to become the first drug capable of protecting the retinal neurons that make up the optic nerve—a function known as neuroprotection.

If successful, the therapy will offer a new, first-in-kind approach to treating glaucoma.

David Krizaj, PhD, is Associate Director of the Moran Eye Center’s Alan S. Crandall Center for Glaucoma Innovation.

John A. Moran Eye Center

Vision Statement

Center is committed to the goal that no person with a blinding condition, eye disease, or visual impairment should be without hope, understanding, and treatment.

The

John A. Moran Eye