Mission Statement
Our mission is to reduce blindness by providing eye care, including cataract surgery and glasses for those in need. Eye Corps, Inc. (“Eye Corps”) is a 501(c)(3) founded in 2017. We are a registered non-profit currently operating in Tanzania. Our presence in Tanzania is supported with in-country NGO status and a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Tanzania.
What We Do
Our mandate is building sustainable eye care in rural sub-Saharan Africa. We partner with local, frontline eye care providers and academic ophthalmic training institutions. We maximize the impact of in-country ophthalmology professionals by providing needed equipment in conjunction with continuing medical education and postgraduate mentorship. We expand access to low-cost cataract surgeries, eye care and glasses, while increasing capacity for high quality eyecare services.
How We Do It
We partner with the leading postgraduate ophthalmology master of medicine program in Tanzania to improve training by sharing US lecturers and supplying educational tools. In doing so, we eliminate three major barriers to building sustainable eye care in the region:
- Inadequate quality training
- Lack of support for graduates to transition from student to surgeon
- Lack of surgical equipment
Our ongoing collaboration with in-country doctors and nurses supports an environment where Tanzanians provide quality care for their fellow Tanzanians.
THE EYE CORPS FORMULA FOR SUCCESS:
- Elevate the quality of in-country education, empower local physicians with technical assistance and mentorship;
- Provide access to equipment, supplies and facilities necessary to conduct quality cataract surgery;
- Interface with the local community and government to ensure that Eye Corps is viewed as a long-term partner; and
- Serve as a coordinator for other NGOs and non-profits interested in participating in education and the reduction of global blindness.
It is only by creating a stable surgical community that Tanzania and all sub-Saharan countries can eliminate its cataract and refractive blindness.
Our Team
Susan MacDonald
Dr. Susan MacDonald is is a board-certified ophthalmologist. She received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She trained in two specialties Internal Medicine at Brown University and Ophthalmology Residency at the University of Utah. In 2017, Susan co-founded Eye Corps, a nonprofit in sub-Saharan Africa. Within five years Eye Corps has grown from a small idea to a well-respected model of sustainable eye care. The goal of Eye Corps is to improve the quality and quantity of eye care provided by in-country professionals. Under Susan’s leadership, Eye Corps has three sites in regional hospitals located in Kilimanjaro, Lindi and Ruvuma regions of Tanzania.
Roger Furlong
Roger Furlong, MD is a board-certified ophthalmologist practicing for over 30 years in Missoula, MT, specializing in glaucoma, cataract and intraocular lens surgeries. He received his MD degree from UCSF Medical School and his ophthalmology residency from the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. He followed this with an anterior segment fellowship under Dr. Alan Crandall at the Moran Eye Center, University of Utah. Roger is the Medical Director of Eye Corps and is also Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the Moran Eye Center. He has traveled for 20 years with Eye Corps and Moran Global Outreach working to create sustainable delivery of eye care and surgery to address treatable and preventable blindness in underserved regions with an emphasis on increasing the care being delivered by local heath care professionals.
Jane Durcan
Jane Durcan MD is an adjunct professor of ophthalmology at the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah. She received her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed an ophthalmology residency at the University of Utah. Additional training included fellowships in neuro-ophthalmology at the University of Iowa, and glaucoma fellowships at the Moran Eye Center with Alan Crandall MD and at the Devers Eye Institute with Mike Van Buskirk MD. She did an additional 3 months of glaucoma training at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London England. She was an associate professor of ophthalmology at the Moran Eye Center from until from 1987 until 2001 and then was in private practice at the Spokane Eye Clinic in Spokane Washington until 2015. She is thrilled to be able to continue to fulfill her passion for providing eye care to those in need and also helping to train the next generation of ophthalmologists through her current work with Eye Corps.
Lisa Williamson
Lisa is a registered nurse with 28 years of ophthalmic nursing in preoperative, recovery and circulating areas for ophthalmic surgeries and has extensive ophthalmic outreach experience with Eye Corps and Moran Global Outreach. She is the Lead Registered Nurse on all Eye Corps trips. She is involved in logistics and planning of outreach trips, as well as nursing education. She is currently employed by the University of Utah Moran Eye Center in an ophthalmic registered nurse capacity.