Linda M. Lawrence, MD
Linda M. Lawrence, MD was nominated to receive this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award by the Young Ophthalmologist Committee and the Kansas Society for Eye Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Lawrence’s humanitarian service began in her hometown of Salina, Kansas in 1992. Recognizing the need to screen infants and young children with disabilities for associated vision problems, she started a free Functional Vision Assessment and Intervention Program. She extended the program regionally. She also partnered with the Kansas State School for the Blind initiating a statewide Pediatric Low Vision Collaboration Clinic (PLVCC). This two-hour assessment involves the child’s family, as well as the educational team, to maximize the visual efficiency and learning ability of each handicapped child. The statewide PLVCC has an educational/rehabilitation focus. The children targeted to participate are visually impaired with additional challenges. She is currently initiating this model of assessment and intervention in Peru in partnership with the Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru, training local Peruvian ophthalmologists and intervention teams in the 23 rural provinces. In 2003, she founded the Amaranth Foundation to provide a funding source to “help children achieve their full potential”.
Dr. Lawrence took her volunteer efforts internationally in 1998, leading subsequent projects on three continents and several countries. Partnering with non-governmental organizations like ORBIS International Inc., the Esbar Foundation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and the Hope House in Zaria, Nigeria, she continued her efforts to coordinate and promote the eye screening of children. In Zaria, she assembled ophthalmologists, pediatricians, low-vision therapists and educators to host a weeklong course in Low Vision. Simultaneously, she set up a course on medical and surgical retina at a local university. In the process, she also brought engineers with her who helped wire the local non-profit group with internet access, set up a radio tower, and taught at the university.
Dr. Lawrence’s international humanitarian efforts also include cataract surgery and retina clinics. Her emphasis continues to be on sustainable local eye care projects. Her work has taken her to Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica, India, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Vietnam. Whenever necessary, she has provided funding for equipment such as lasers and medication. Her international work has also involved teaching small incision extra-capsular cataract surgery (SICS) to local physicians and insuring that resources were available to continue the work she had started. Concerned that U.S. ophthalmologists lacked skills in third world cataract surgery, she partnered with Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE) International to develop a SICS course which is now given annually in Santa Barbara, California.
Dr. Lawrence has received the ORBIS Medical Faculty Award and the Rotary Club Lima (Peru) District 4450 Leadership Award in 2004 and the Kansas Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2008, among many other awards.
Dr. Lawrence has been instrumental in bringing together doctors, volunteers, resources, and patients on multiple continents, multiplying the impact of her own considerable volunteer efforts. The Academy is privileged to honor Dr. Lawrence with this year’s Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award.
