Optometry Giving Sight Event to Honor Professor Brien Holden, PhD
Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) will host the inaugural Brien Holden Founders Award Dinner on October 7 in memory of the organization’s founder, Professor Brien Holden, PhD. This year marks the tenth anniversary of his passing. The event will be held in Boston, MA, prior to the American Academy of Optometry’s 2025 Annual meeting. During the evening OGS will present the first Optometry Giving Sight Brien Holden Founders Awards.
In 2003, Holden along with the Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI) team, brought together leadership from the World Council of Optometry (WCO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) to discuss the need for a different approach to addressing Uncorrected Refractive Error (URE) – one that had its roots in the proverb, “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”
He helped establish OGS as a non-profit fundraising organization to raise money for projects globally that provided eye exams and eyeglasses to meet the immediate need to address URE. But, he was equally passionate about addressing the root cause of URE – the lack of optometry professionals in developing countries. His focus with OGS became on funding programs that build the educational and systemic infrastructure necessary to support the establishment of the optometry profession. Brien’s vision remains the mission of OGS today.
Since its founding, OGS has awarded more than 200 grants to support the establishment of 14 optometry schools, the development of more than 130 vision centers, and the training of over 14,000 optometry professionals. Programs partially funded by OGS have served more than 8 million people in 47 countries.
More information about dinner sponsorships, individual tickets, and memorial donations can be found here. Award winners will be announced soon.
