Two CEOs, One Mission, Advancing Eye Health for All!

Heather Patrick:

Hey, it's your eye health experts, Prevent Blindness Texas, and welcome to Eyespiring, a conversation about all things vision and life. Hi, welcome to Prevent Blindness Texas podcast, Eyespiring. Today we have a great special guest, Jeff Todd, who is the CEO of Prevent Blindness. So let me tell you a little bit about Prevent Blindness Texas. We are a public health agency that serves the entire state with a focus on vision.

Heather Patrick:

This past year, we served almost 60,000 people across the state, and we work within advocacy, awareness, and access. I'm Heather Patrick, the CEO of Prevent Blindness Texas, and I have spent my career in the public health nonprofit space. So now let me introduce Jeff Todd. He has an incredible bio. I'm just going to give a couple of sentences, and then I'm going to let Jeff tell his story.

Heather Patrick:

But he has been with Prevent Blindness for twenty two years, and I think that just says a lot to begin with, especially in the nonprofit space. To be an organization that long and that committed, I think, says a lot about who you are and who the organization is. But he has been the president and CEO for the past six. And he is on the boards of the National Health Council and the International Agency to Prevent Blindness. Jeff, tell us a little more about you.

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, thanks. You know, I'm shocked that I've been here for twenty two years, but as much as appreciate your comments, as much as it says anything about me, I think it says about the organization. As you know, we have a lot of people who've been here a long time, both at the National Office and affiliates, I think it says a lot about who we are as people and what our commitments are, but also, the organization and the mission and why it's so important.

Jeff Todd:

You know, just, I think my background is somewhat similar to yours. I've worked mostly in the public health arena, both within government affairs in the past and other public health issues, but I've been in the eye health space for twenty two years and so it's certainly become a big passion of mine.

Heather Patrick:

Okay, so how did you get here? What brought you to prevent blindness?

Jeff Todd:

I always wish I had a more exciting story for this. It really was, which has kind of been part of, I think, my career. It was kind of happenstance and a little of luck and obviously a lot of preparation, but, I was living in DC and I was ready to get out of DC. It was right after nineeleven, just a lot of complicated stuff going on in the country, and I'm a Midwesterner. I came from the Midwest and pretty much overnight this job appeared with this organization called Prevent Blindness.

Jeff Todd:

It was Prevent Blindness America at the time and it was in Chicago, and I thought, wow that sounds interesting, and literally three weeks after I heard about the job I was packing up and moving to Chicago. And I have to say even though I do have some eye health, a little bit of eye health issues in the family, It wasn't something that was super top of mind, so I kind of thought this would be a transitionary job for a year or two.

Jeff Todd:

But then it got in the blood like it does a lot of us, I realized how important eye health is, and it also did. I have a grandmother who had AMD and her story was just very tragic, and so it's something that I have called on a lot or been reminded of a lot in my career here and why it's so important for people to have access not only to eye health but supportive services to help those who've lost their vision and eye health to continue to have a high quality of life.

Heather Patrick:

And so, was the actual position? So, you came in twenty two years, yeah, what was the actual position? Kind of just to give that, I think it's always cool when you've been at an organization that long, right? Just kind of the path you've taken and now you're the CEO. Kind of wind through that path.

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, well you know, as you know in the nonprofit space we all kind of wear multiple hats. So I think from the beginning I was wearing multiple hats, but I was hired really, I think the title was Director of Public Health, but up until that point, the Prevent Blindness really didn't have a strong, public health sense of who we were, but we had been doing some work in Washington. It just helps establish a Congressional Vision Caucus in Washington, D. C, and had advocated for funding to go to the CDC, to develop a new vision and eye health program. Until then there was no vision program at the CDC.

Jeff Todd:

There was a staff person, there was an ophthalmologist who worked within the diabetes division to make that connection there, but there was no program. So Prevent Blindness had advocated for this program and for funding, and there was about to be a grant that came from CDC that Prevent Blindness would be eligible for. So I was hired to write that first grant and hopefully once it was awarded, which it eventually was, to lead that program. And so that was really my first foray into prevent blindness. From there, I really started doing more and more work with our corporate development and other development areas.

Jeff Todd:

You know, anyone who works in nonprofit, as you know, is a fundraiser needs to be, and so I spent a lot of time in that space and then moved into, I think, a Chief Operating Officer role, and then I've been in the CEO role since my predecessor left, eight years ago.

Heather Patrick:

Pretty amazing. Why does eye health matter so much to you personally now that you've been in this role and you've seen it personally and professionally? Why does it matter so much?

Jeff Todd:

I think about it a lot because it's part of our job. We do it, and I think about it, and I think about personally what would it mean if I lost my vision. And I, you know, I certainly I have presbyopia. I've worn glasses all my life. So even just as simple as it is to being aware of how blessed I am to be able to just go to my eye doctor down the street and get a pair of glasses.

Jeff Todd:

Not everyone in this country has that, and we face that challenge all the time. And also being aware of what it means, you know, as I said, my grandmother had macular degeneration that has some hereditary aspects to it. What does that mean for my future? And so, certainly, appreciating the importance of research and that sort of thing. And I've had a number of family members who've reached out to me for assistance, in accessing eye care, because they knew where I worked.

Jeff Todd:

And it's shocking being the CEO of Prevent Blindness how many struggles I've had. I'm thinking of one of my cousins who had had an eye condition she needed, needed access to care for, and she was kind of between jobs, she was kind of in that place where you're lost between insurance, and it was a struggle for me to get her help. And so I think about people who don't have the resources and the access that I do, how challenging that is. So it's something that I think about all the time, and I think that's part of the struggle that we have is most people don't think about eye health as often as you or I do.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah, I would agree with that. But that's part of why we're here and what we're trying to change, right?

Jeff Todd:

Exactly, yeah.

Heather Patrick:

Okay, so of prevent blindness, what are you passionate about? What drives you?

Jeff Todd:

You know, I think, what drives me professionally at least and personally, I have kind of a strong bent towards justice and equity. I also have a law degree that might be part of it, but my parents, my dad was an attorney, he was a civil rights guy, my mother, they kind of built that into all of us. And I've always felt that if we want a just society, a starting point has to be equity in healthcare.

Jeff Todd:

If everyone has access to the same or to the healthcare that they need, that sets us on a great platform to build an equitable and just society. And so that's part of the reason I'm passionate about healthcare, But it really is, you know, we have a lot of resources in this world and we certainly have a lot of resources in this country.

Jeff Todd:

No one should be going without most things, but they sure shouldn't be going out without health care or without eye care. And so I think that's one of the things I'm most passionate about. On a personal level, I'm very passionate about my family and friends. That's what drives me, professionally it's certainly that. What about you, Heather?

Jeff Todd:

What drives you?

Heather Patrick:

Seems similar. I mean, I've always, believed that health care and education set the path for a person, And I think when either of those are compromised, it changes the pathway for that individual. And so I think that we are called to serve. And I just deeply believe that. And I have always, as cheesy as it is, I've just always wanted to make the world a better place.

Heather Patrick:

I really do want to improve life for people. And I I deeply believe in health care. That's why I've spent twenty plus years in it. And my personal time, I spend advocating in public education. So the two things that I deeply believe in, I give to you in every way I can because I believe that we can make a big difference.

Jeff Todd:

Well, and you're certainly in a great role. I mean, as we know, iHealth is kind of at the center of health and education. Well,

Heather Patrick:

and I think that's one of the reasons I love this job so much. It just really, incorporates all the things I've learned through my career, but certainly the things that I am passionate about and believe deeply in. We get the chance every day to make it different. And I think that's pretty awesome. I think that's the definition of a dream job for me.

Jeff Todd:

Yeah. Yeah.

Heather Patrick:

Okay. So what, as a CEO, both just in the role, but then also to for prevent blindness, what are the biggest challenges facing you right now? So yeah, in the space just in general, but also in that role. What's hard I about that

Jeff Todd:

I think one of the things that in the role, and you know this as well, one of the things, and I was told this before I became a CEO, is a CEO role can be a lonely one. When you're in other roles in an organization, you have peers that you can talk to or, you know, moan to or whatever you need.

Jeff Todd:

As a CEO, you don't necessarily have those peers, at least not within your own organization. And so it's been important to me to part of the reason that I am on some of these other groups like the National Health Council and other ones is I have peer CEOs with other national organizations that I can connect with and share my struggles with people that are disconnected from prevent blindness but understand the roles and the challenges that we're having. I think, organizationally at prevent blindness, and you've been through this as well, there are a lot of things we have control over and there are a lot of things we don't.

Jeff Todd:

And there have been a number of times where we've lost funding or other resources that was completely out of our control, and we have to adjust and figure out how to roll with those punches. If it's something that we have control over and we just drop the ball, we can pick that up and fix it. If it's external, it's a lot harder, and so that's I think the biggest challenge. Similar to that, things like COVID, that was a big one. I think organizationally across our system we did relatively well of rolling with COVID, but when's the next COVID going to come around?

Jeff Todd:

Or we certainly have a lot of stuff going on right now we're having to figure out, how we grapple with as well. So those are the things that I think are the biggest challenges, the ones that we don't have control over, at least initially.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah, the external environment, right? The pressures of the external environment. Yes. So, on the flip side, what's the most rewarding thing about the job?

Jeff Todd:

Oh, that's pretty, I think, pretty easy for me. There's really two things that come to mind. When I hear from somebody that we've helped, you know, that I don't in my role, maybe you do a little bit more, but probably not that much either. I'm not out in the field that much, I don't talk that often to the people that we're helping or that are ultimately the recipients of our care. We're a step removed from most of that direct care, even then the affiliates often, although we have programs where we are.

Jeff Todd:

And so we do have those opportunities to meet with people and they tell me the impact that we've had. And I've had many of those times where it just really hits you that, wow, I had a really frustrating day trying to write this grant or do this, but that led to something impactful. That's definitely probably the biggest. I think the other rewarding thing that really, I appreciate and I hear it often is when I hear from our partners, our funders, etc, about one of my team members who did great.

Jeff Todd:

It's really rewarding when someone comes up to you and says, hey, so and so did a great job, I really want you to know how great they are, you've got a terrific team, those are really rewarding things. And I think it says a lot about who we are as an organization when people share that. It's what keeps them coming back, whether it's funders or people looking for services, and so that's another thing that is really rewarding for me to hear. What about you?

Heather Patrick:

So I have I am out in the field more than you are. But I do hear quite often from our clients the impact we've made. And we get success stories all the time. And I do think that it is amazing. I mean, same with us when our partners come to the table and talk about how they view vision differently.

Heather Patrick:

That to me is one of the coolest things. Met with one of our, she's basically a wraparound specialist We partner with, and she actually we've been working with them for about two years now. They were a big partner for us when we were doing solar eclipse education. And she said to us before meeting us, you know, she didn't need glasses, she knew she didn't need glasses, so she wasn't going to the eye doctor, but now she went and she understands why she needs to go. And I just think it's that.

Heather Patrick:

It's those kind of stories. It's knowing that we are a small team in a huge state, but really truly changing the behavior of people, helping them understand why eye health is so important. And I think just watching people grow and soar and, you know, it has been amazing to me to watch the team grow and thrive and embrace their leadership in very different capacities. And so that to me is the coolest part. Watching a team come together and really build something amazing.

Heather Patrick:

And I think that's what we've been able to do. So now it's the next part of the life cycle is, okay, you built this great thing. Now how do you really make it grow? I think that's

Jeff Todd:

a of people on your team who've been there a long time too.

Heather Patrick:

Yep. I do. I do. Yeah. I mean, for the most part, it ranges Monica's been there twenty plus years.

Heather Patrick:

Craig's been there twelve years. Maribel's been there almost twelve years. So, yeah, a lot of them have been, here for quite a while. Like you, I think it's a mission that's easy to get behind. It's very clear and very compelling.

Heather Patrick:

And I just think there are great people that are part of this space.

Jeff Todd:

And we're always evolving. We're doing different things every day. I would get bored if we weren't. And so there's always new stuff coming up. So that's great too.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah, I mean, think that's one of the coolest things about this space is that, and I tell people this all the time, it's still a solvable problem. There are many great missions across the board, but there are many that it's not a solvable problem. You can make it better. You can improve it, but for us, this is actually a solvable issue if we do the right things right now. And I think that's pretty cool to be a

Jeff Todd:

It part of can also be pretty frustrating though.

Heather Patrick:

It can be.

Jeff Todd:

Because it's like, are we even doing this work? This should not be this this hard to get people a pair of glasses. But yeah, I think it's a great point.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah. Okay, so did you always want to be a CEO?

Jeff Todd:

I don't know many people that could say yes to that, but maybe there are.

Heather Patrick:

I did. Did you really?

Jeff Todd:

Okay, well, I want to hear that. I did not always want to be a CEO, but like I said earlier, I am just one of those people that never really planned my career, it just kind of happened to me, but I've been very blessed with where it's led me. And, you know, I've always had a strong work ethic. I've had a job since I was 15. I don't think I've ever not had a regular paycheck since the age of 15, and so I just kind of rolled with whatever was next.

Jeff Todd:

So I think the experiences that I built over time led me here. Not, I was at some point I knew that that's probably well and yeah I knew at one point that that was the next step, whether it was with prevent blindness or someone else, I definitely knew that a while ago, but it wasn't something that I necessarily, sought out. But you know, does have, as we talked about, it has its challenges, but it has its rewards too. But so you always wanted to be a CEO.

Heather Patrick:

When I was in high school, as a graduating senior, that was one of my goals was to be a I didn't know in what industry, And at that time, I was really fascinated by the fashion industry. That's where I actually started my career on the for profit side. But I always knew I wanted to be a CEO. I would get there. And I certainly never envisioned the path that I actually took, but I knew I wanted to lead an organization.

Heather Patrick:

Nice.

Jeff Todd:

That's great.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah. Okay. So let's transition a little bit and talk, about Prevent Blindness. Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting you talked about that when you first came, you really weren't, I think, public health focused like you are now.

Heather Patrick:

So talk about that growth and why it's important. Why be a part of the public health conversation?

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, you know, I mean public health I think is somewhat in our culture. Sometimes it's a kind of an alignment, it's a misunderstood word. I mean, it's really pretty simple. There's individual health taking care of our own health, there's family health taking care of your family, and there's public health, how we take care of the communities around us or the country around us or the globe around us. So, I think public health makes sense.

Jeff Todd:

It's about making sure that we have a healthy society, and to your point, if we can have a healthy educated society, everyone learns, everyone grows, our economy gets better, all things are great, and so public health just makes common sense. And it's about, yes, it's great if we can help one person, that's terrific, but if we can set up systems and if we can impact policy to where we're not just helping this one person, but we're doing something that's going to help hundreds of people or thousands of people or millions of people, we can have a much bigger impact.

Jeff Todd:

So I think there is that kind of blend between what we do individually, locally, at the state level, national and global, all of that comes together, which is why I appreciate the work that I do that allows me those different avenues. But I think that's why it's so important for me to grow Prevent Blindness into a we've always done public health, we've been around for one hundred and fifteen years, we were founded as a public health organization, but to really continue to embrace that as who we are not be afraid to call ourselves that.

Jeff Todd:

And I think there have been periods where we've like, do we want to shy away from that label? And I always get frustrated when that comes up because you could not label us that, but that's what we are. Yeah,

Heather Patrick:

absolutely. Okay, so talk a little bit about you just went through a whole strategic planning process. So talk a little bit just about that evolution and now what you're strategically focused on.

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, we did just adopt a new strategic plan. It launched April 1 just last month, and it's a five year plan. It doesn't stray a lot from what we've been doing in the past, but I think it does give us new focus in looking at kind of the environment that we're around. Similar to you, we have three pillars: educate, advocate, and collaborate. Educate is really about raising awareness of overall health and access, about making sure that people are educated around individual eye conditions, understanding the intersections between eye health and things like mental health and child development, chronic health conditions, how eye health, factors into those.

Jeff Todd:

And we also do a lot of training and technical assistance, which really fits into the educate space. ADVOCATE is really the work that we do in Washington primarily. We're a Chicago based organization, although we really are virtual now. We have staff all over the country, but we also have a presence in DC. We have two staff people in DC in a lobbying firm that we work with, and I'm out there quite a bit.

Jeff Todd:

So we spend a lot of time advocating for public policy for eye health and making sure that eye health is at the table. We also equip patients and care partners and allies to become strong advocates. We consider ourselves a patient advocacy organization and so that means that we advocate for patients, but we also advocate with them. And the more that we can have them with us at the table, and advocating for themselves, for their families, for their communities, the better. I think the other arm of ADVOCATE that we're really focusing on right now is community health, community health centers.

Jeff Todd:

By far the place that most Americans get their health care, those who are uninsured or underinsured or in, community health centers or federally qualified health centers and other, clinics like that. And so trying to figure out how we can integrate vision care into community health is really important. And then the third is collaborate, and that has a number of angles. The most important one to us really is how we collaborate with affiliates like Prevent Blindness Texas, Prevent Blindness Wisconsin, Ohio, and others, and how the national office and the affiliate offices intersect, and support one another. It's also about collaborating on healthcare.

Jeff Todd:

So we are at the table of a number of coalitions, as you mentioned, the National Health Council, and so being with groups like the Lung Association, the Asthma Society, other healthcare groups so that we can collectively share our voice to move healthcare forward at the federal level is really important. And I mentioned federal because we primarily for capacity reasons at the National Office focus on federal policy, although we touch on global occasionally and sometimes even as we have recently touched on some state issues.

Jeff Todd:

And then the other element of collaborate is really supporting other eye health organizations. We partner with all sorts of eye health organizations. At the end of the day, there's very little that blindness doesn't do that we don't do in partnership with someone, And so that's really what that third area is about, collaborate.

Heather Patrick:

I'm going to ask you two questions, and they kind of go hand in hand. But when we were at our meeting in November, the question that was asked has stayed with me, and I have asked my team and I have asked my board, so I'm going to ask you. So what do you think is inevitable in this space?

Jeff Todd:

What is inevitable? I think what is inevitable is progress. I think, you know, we are in, we have been in a really terrifically innovative space as far as research goes, and I'm talking both about just basic research around eye health. I mean we are on the verge, and since I've been here for twenty two years, I've seen several conditions that lead to blindness that had no treatments and now they do. I mean that's just miraculous, and we're on the verge of seeing many, many more of those.

Jeff Todd:

And also at the same time with the advent of AI and things like that, we're on the verge, we're not on the verge, we are seeing different ways of addressing eye health, and so you know it's inevitable to me that we will see progress. What we do with that and how we advance that, is kind of up for discussion, and frankly there are currently some barriers, especially in the research space that I think we're seeing as a healthcare entity and a healthcare community that I'm concerned about what it means for the future of research in eye health.

Jeff Todd:

But as much as I have concerns about, how quickly it will move forward, I know it's going to move forward. And so ten, fifteen years from now, the eye health landscape is going to look drastically different than it is today. And to that point, we and the affiliates are going to need to evolve significantly on that. And I know you agree on that front.

Heather Patrick:

I do. Yeah. So kind of along those lines, but what happens if we don't do anything? What's at risk if we just kind of keep going the same way we're going? So even if there is progress, what's truly at risk if we don't change some of the interventions and make and capitalize on some of this progress?

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, I mean, think we irrelevant. I mean, at the end of the day, and I say this often, prevent blindness has been around for one hundred and fifteen years. I don't think we're going anywhere, but we have to stay relevant. We have to stay current. We don't want to go the path of taxi cabs and Ubers, or there's so many stories like that.

Jeff Todd:

If we don't align with the technology, even if we don't necessarily agree that this might be the way it's going, at some point you have to acknowledge this is where things are heading. I'm either going to go with it and adjust and be a part of that and help correct it when needed, or I'm going to stay back here and continue to do things the way I was doing. And so I think this is a discussion I think we've had and will continue to have. One of the things that prevent blindness and certainly our affiliates is known for is vision screening. What does vision screening mean now, five years from now, ten years from now?

Jeff Todd:

And we certainly aren't going to if we're still doing vision screening, we're not going to be doing it in the same way. And so if we just continue to do vision screenings the way we are now, we're going to be shutting our doors because that's not going to be relevant down the road. And it goes to many other aspects of our work as well.

Heather Patrick:

From a national perspective, so how much do we spend a year now on eye care?

Jeff Todd:

On eye care?

Heather Patrick:

$150,000,000,000 somewhere around there somewhere.

Jeff Todd:

You know, it's actually, I think it's actually like two to three times that, I think. Those numbers are always so challenging for me to get my head around, but it's a heck of a lot.

Heather Patrick:

And so if we don't capitalize on progress, if we don't get interventions into the communities that need them the most, what does that look like in twenty five years? How does that change what we spend?

Jeff Todd:

Well, it's interesting when you look at, and I am not an economist, but when you look at the impact of eye health, you really have to calculate that in different ways than you do many other health conditions because you're talking about if someone can't see, you're talking about their productivity. I mean, that happens with other health conditions, it's very different when you're talking about someone losing their sight.

Jeff Todd:

You're talking about people having to look at new jobs, different jobs, being unemployed, you're talking about the challenges to the workforce. I mean the impact on the economy is not just how much it costs us for these interventions, but how much it costs us if we don't do them. And the idea of us not staying as a country, not staying on top of addressing the question that, as you mentioned, is a solvable one, you know, it's just going to set us back decades.

Heather Patrick:

So I want to go back to something you talked about too, because I think this is really important, in terms of patient advocacy. And so talk a little bit about the Aspect program and why it's so important. You know, from my perspective, I think helping patients find their voice and tell their story is incredibly important in any space. But, you know, for eye health, I think it's pretty unique to have this program. So talk a little bit about Aspect because I think it's really

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, the Aspect program is the Aspect patient engagement program. It started first year of COVID because why not start a new program in COVID in the middle of a pandemic? But the impetus for it, it's certainly grown to be more than it was originally started for, the impetus for it was frankly the fact that we work with a number of pharmaceutical companies and on a fairly regular basis I'll get a call from a company that says, hey we have this clinical trial on glaucoma, or we're doing some marketing around glaucoma and we need some patient insight.

Jeff Todd:

Can you get me a patient or a handful of patients who have glaucoma who could participate in this? Yes, I could always identify those patients or our team could always identify those. It didn't mean they were prepared to do what they were being asked to do, And so we said, you know, why don't we create this program where we train people to be a part of discussions around clinical trials, to be a part of talking with companies about how they should market to make sure that the right people are getting access to the drugs.

Jeff Todd:

But then as it started developing, was like, but we also want to train them to go to Capitol Hill, to talk to their senators, to talk to their congressmen. We want to help them understand how to talk to the media, how to talk locally about eye health and its importance. And so we started this program that originally pre COVID as we were conceiving it was going to be an in person program, but it actually turned into a virtual one, which made it so much more accessible. And so now, twice a year we bring together around 30 to 40 people across the country.

Jeff Todd:

We've had a few people from outside of the country across ages. I think we've someone down to the age of 16 up into their 90s across eye health conditions. We have dozens of eye health conditions that have been involved from those that are considered maybe more minor to those that are, you know, to people who fully lost their eyesight. And we bring them together over the course of, I think it's twenty weeks, but every other week they meet, and they go through a number of trainings about how to tell their story, what is an FDA hearing, what is a clinical trial, how do drugs get developed, how does a bill become a law? So we prepare them with that, but then the most important part is we help them understand their story and how to share it.

Jeff Todd:

So, could share my health journey with someone, but can I turn that journey into three minutes that I have with a senator and have the same impact or to really tell their story in different ways and to fully embrace it? And it has done everything we thought it would do, but then think one of the biggest things on top of that is it's created this community. So now we have over 200 people who've been through this program, we consider our Aspect alum who are regularly in touch with us. Anytime someone calls and says, Do you have a patient with geographic atrophy? Do you have a patient with thyroid eye disease?

Jeff Todd:

Yes, we have several. We can put out a message, Hey, who wants to help out with this? Who wants to help out with that? An important part of the program is if someone comes to us, we say, for most of these, not all, we need to value that person's time and they need to be paid for their time. Their time's worth something.

Jeff Todd:

And so it's become a really terrific program and it also allows us to make sure that I'm not just going to Capitol Hill by myself, but oftentimes there's someone sitting with me who has lived experience who can share their story as well, and that has a lot more impact than me from Chicago flying in to talk to a congressman from Arizona about the importance of eye health. So it's a terrific program.

Heather Patrick:

It is incredible. I think, both being a part of it, but then also knowing some of the participants and their ability to really convey their story, it's just powerful.

Jeff Todd:

Yeah, and I've seen their growth just as individuals and hear from them. Some of these conditions, they share, you know, it's weird because some of these conditions people live with, they have this shame about it or this fear about letting their family know they have these conditions, and it's brought this veil off them where it literally changes them into a more just powerful person, someone with confidence. And we hear that from them all the time that they have found their voice and their community.

Jeff Todd:

One of the biggest things that I've ever been told about this program was a woman at one of our, we have kind of a gathering of them every couple years, and it was a woman with very advanced retinal disease. She was almost fully blind, but she shared with me that this program that she's been through didn't restore her sight one bit, and yet it was the most powerful thing that she's done since she lost her sight. And so that was pretty, pretty powerful to hear.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah. Pretty amazing. Alright, so let's talk a little bit about the industry as a whole. So you've been a part of the space for twenty plus years, so what's the biggest change that you see and then what do you think is going to be the biggest change in the next five to ten years?

Jeff Todd:

Well, we kind of touched on this earlier. I think, you know, what I'm seeing is the advances in research, and what's coming down the pike. I regularly am meeting with our industry partners in the pharma industry as well as optical, and there are a lot of cool things that are working on. They just need to continue to have the support to do them. I think what I foresee is also what we kind of touched on is the impact potentially of AI and what that means.

Jeff Todd:

And I think in a lot of ways that's yet to be determined and it's yet to be seen, but at the same time we're having to start exploring what that's going to look like. And whatever we feel it's going to look like now, we're probably need to pivot a year from now, but we have to start having those conversations.

Heather Patrick:

Yeah, so you know, how do you think we continue to advocate for vision to be part of the overall health conversation? Because I find that we are still left behind in many ways. And I think in order to help shape some of these changes that are coming, how do we become a part of that conversation?

Jeff Todd:

I think the most important thing we try to do this as much as we can, especially in the advocacy space in Washington, is be at the table. We are on a lot of coalitions and sometimes it seems like a lot of work, but we're on a lot of health care coalitions because if someone, if there's a coalition that is going to be talking about advancing a policy around, whatever access to health care, around Medicaid and health care, whatever, and someone isn't there to say vision health needs to be a part of that, it's going to be left out.

Jeff Todd:

And as you know, unfortunately for whatever reason, these eyes seem to be divorced from the rest of the body when we're talking about healthcare. So people talk about healthcare over here and then we talk about vision care over here. I think that somewhat has to do with how it's covered, but there are a lot of reasons.

Jeff Todd:

And so we have to be there at the table saying, let's make sure to put vision into that, let's make sure eye health is discussed. And it's part of the reason that I try to serve on these boards to make sure that I met those conversations, I encourage other staff to be on committees and boards to make sure that we're represented. It's not going to happen with us alone. We can't just go in as prevent blindness or the eye health community and say eyes need to be brought in, we need to be in those conversations early and often.

Heather Patrick:

So one piece of advice you get out to the audience about that you want them to know about vision health, and then one takeaway, just knowledge on the space.

Jeff Todd:

I think what I want people to know is that vision continues to be underappreciated. And I know that there's an answer to that, As long as I've been here, I sense that. It's great that people aren't walking around concerned about losing their vision, but at the end of the day, it's an interesting condition because at the end of the day, if you live long enough, every human being is going to have some instance of some eye care challenge that they need to deal with, whether that's glasses or certainly if you, as we're living longer, we're going to see more and more age related conditions.

Jeff Todd:

We have a growing epidemic of diabetes and obesity, so we're going to see more and more eye health conditions. So every single human being is going to be impacted with eye health challenges, but we don't think about that.

Jeff Todd:

So I think that's kind of the biggest takeaway is we need to continue to remind people that eye health matters and that vision is one of the most important things, the census that we have. What was the second question? Second part.

Heather Patrick:

Well, you kind of answered it all, but one piece of eye health advice people want know.

Jeff Todd:

One piece of eye health advice, I think it's to seek eye care and to make sure that other people have access to it. I mean, for many of us luckily, blessed and have access, like I said, we can go to our eye doctor on a regular basis. But many people don't have that, and I think it's important for people to access eye care in the best way that they can. If they can't, seek help, and for those of us who can offer help to offer that help. What about you?

Jeff Todd:

What's going on in Texas? How can people get involved with the work that you're doing?

Heather Patrick:

Well, we are wrapping up year three of our strategic plan and getting ready to go into that process, so now is a great time to get involved. We are always looking for board members, committee members, and volunteers to help us out in the field. Again, we have a staff of nine, and they're an incredible team. But this is a huge state, we can't do it alone. And we don't wanna do it alone.

Heather Patrick:

Right? I think to your point earlier, I think one of the most amazing things about this space is that partnership is just part of the culture. And I love that about being in this space. And I think we have incredible partners. But the demand just keeps growing.

Heather Patrick:

I mean, truly, when I started eight years ago, we were serving about 13,000 people. We're serving almost 60,000 people. It really doesn't even touch the surface yet for this kind of state. But we just continue to build partners and respond to demand. And so I think, you know, are so many ways to help and to your point, to advocate, to share your story, to help us educate out in the community, and of course, you know, to be a donor.

Heather Patrick:

I mean, I think that now is the time to be a part of this space to help us move forward. I go back to what I said earlier, it's a solvable problem and with investment, and that's what I consider it to be, right? It's not just a donation. You're investing in change and we are making change.

Jeff Todd:

And some people, I think, some people want to help out, don't have the time or don't know how, and if you're one of those people, write a check. That's helping, it's helping a lot and we need that, and we need those. And so I think you're absolutely right. And as far as you guys, I'm shocked at what you guys are able to do in Texas. I mean Texas is a country of its own with so many cultures and subcultures and such a wide geography.

Jeff Todd:

I'm just amazed what you guys are doing. It's been incredible to watch your growth over the many years.

Heather Patrick:

Thank you. Yeah, I love it. I just have an incredible board and an incredible team. You know, we have hundreds of great volunteers. We have hundreds of partners, and I just, I love what we get to do every day.

Heather Patrick:

And so that to me, and I love doing things like this. I think this is such a cool platform to be able to talk about what we do in this space and so thank you for being here and being a part of the conversation and thank you for your leadership truly and Yeah, your

Jeff Todd:

thank you for yours. I'm glad you're a CEO. Glad I met your goal.

Heather Patrick:

Me too. Now the next question is, where do I go next? What do we do Retire. Right? It was, it is an incredible position to be in and one of great responsibility.

Heather Patrick:

So but one that has the opportunity to truly make a difference in this world. And so but you're right. Sometimes it is very lonely. Yeah. It can be a very lonely position, but it just I don't know.

Heather Patrick:

I just love doing it. That's great. Yeah. Alright. Well, thank you so much, Jeff.

Heather Patrick:

I truly appreciate your time and your insight and, again, your leadership for all that you do for the whole organization. So thank you for being a great partner.

Jeff Todd:

Yeah. Thank you.

Heather Patrick:

And as we talked about, you can always be a part of Prevent Blindness Texas. There are many ways to reach us, get involved with us, and always remember to subscribe to I Spiring. And of course, we always end with the question, Tell us what your vision is. Thanks and take care.

Two CEOs, One Mission, Advancing Eye Health for All!
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