The 2024 EBAA Annual Meeting was held June 5-8, in Kansas City. If you were unable to attend, here is an overview of the event. The Annual Meeting Package is also available on eyeLEARN. Mark your calendar to join us June 25-28, 2025, in San Diego for #EBAA2025!
Welcome to Kansas City!
EBAA President and CEO, Kevin Corcoran, and some recognizable Kansas City faces welcomed 300 attendees to Kanas City for four days of programming.
#EBAA2024 kicked off with a leadership add-on session conducted by Gillian Mandich, PhD, titled, “Happy Leaders”, focusing on the importance of happiness in running a successful organization and being an effective manager and supervisor.
Dr. Mandich later led the full group of attendees during the first general session of the meeting with the keynote, “The Science of Happiness”.
General Sessions
Over the course of the meeting, four General Sessions were held. These sessions were recorded and will be available for purchase on eyeLEARN. #EBAA2024 registrants have access to the recordings free of charge.
Included in these sessions were touching testimonies of the gift of sight from Scott Haggerty, a cornea recipient, and Theresa McClellan, a donor wife. Tony Bavuso of Saving Sight led them both in a facilitated discussion where they expressed their gratitude for the work of eye bankers and the impact corneal transplantation has made in their daily functioning and in Theresa’s grieving process.
Other general session topics included:
- FDA Division of Human Tissues Update
- AOPO Updated and the Future Outlook for OPOs
- Raising Financial Support for Your Mission
- Eye Donation Promotion with Donate Life America
- The Power of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- The State of the Association (Delivered by EBAA President & CEO, Kevin Corcoran)
Concurrent Sessions
Outside of General Sessions, EBAA offered the opportunity for registrants to pick and choose individual sessions to attend based on their professional role or interests. These included:
- Donor, Partner, Community Relations Workshop
- Quality Assurance Workshop
- DMEK 2.0 Discussion
- Social Media Strategies
- Navigating Technical Staffing
- Electronic Information Exchange Using the ISBT 128 MPHO Unique Identifier
- Advancing Fund Development Programs
- Technical Skills Workshop
- Corneal Tissue Recovery Wet Lab
- Creating a Workplace of Distinction
- Thriving in a Multi-Generational Workforce
- Research Requests
- AI Unveiled: Harnessing Generative Technologies
Wet Lab
Attendees had the opportunity to perform corneal excisions and ocular dissections during the Ocular Tissue Recovery- Wet Lab, Demos and Discussion. The session included two rounds of wet labs, discussion on ocular donor face preparation, and demos on putting on PPE and performing aseptic technique.
Our gratitude is owed to the faculty members who facilitated this session and the organizations who donated supplies, instruments, and ocular tissue for this experience.
We thank, honor, and remember the donors who made this learning opportunity possible.
Eye Donation Month Theme Announcement
During Thursday’s General Session, EBAA announced the new theme for Eye Donation Month 2024: We Can See Clearly Now
Aligning with the lyrics to the iconic 1972 Johnny Nash song, “I Can See Clearly Now”, the theme emphasizes the LITERAL outcome of eye donation – the ability to see, and the FIGURATIVE outcome of what people experience or “see now” as a donor family, recipient, or champion of eye donation.
Also revealed were the two main “faces” for Eye Donation Month 2024: Josie Evans, a cornea donor wife and U.S. Army Veteran, and Danny Rivers, a bi-lateral cornea recipient, living kidney donor, and 2024 Transplant Games athlete. Josie and Danny have both been interviewed on camera for featured Eye Donation Month videos which will be available this summer – stay tuned!
Thursday Night Social: EBAA on the Town
On Thursday Night, EBAA took over No Other Pub in Kansas City’s bustling Power & Light District. This unique venue allowed meeting attendees to relax, enjoy food, drinks, and conversation, while also playing competitive bar games like darts, bowling, cornhole, shuffleboard, and more.
Guests were also treated to a free country concert featuring the band Treaty Oak Revival – our unobstructed balcony view of the show couldn’t be beat!
Thank you to Saving Sight for their sponsorship of this fun evening!
House of Delegates
Speaker of the House, Shannon Schweitzer, conducted this year’s House of Delegates Meeting. The first item of business was electing the next Board of Directors. Elected members were:
- Winston Chamberlian, MD, PhD (Chair-Elect)
- Adam Kaufman, MD (Secretary/Treasurer)
- Shannon Schweitzer (Speaker of the House)
- Esther Baker (Member At-Large)
- Ellen Kerns, CEBT (Member At-Large)
- Kristen McCoy, MA, CEBT, CTBS (Member At-Large)
- Michelle Rhee, MD (Member At-Large)
- Stephen Kaufman, MD, PhD (Member At-Large)
Following elections was voting on proposed bylaws.
Bylaws Amendments:
Expansion of Membership Qualifications: Would create an Affiliate Member category for companies and organizations that are not eligible for accreditation
Passed: 92.4% in favor; 6.8% opposed; 0.8% abstain
Remove Non-Profit Membership Requirement: Would eliminate the requirement that all eye bank members be non-profit organizations.
Failed: 28.6% in favor; 63.4% opposed; 7.7% abstain
Paton Society Membership: Would formalize and clarify the rights and privileges of Paton Society members.
Passed by acclamation
Change or Termination of Membership: Would add the failure to abide by the Principles of Professional Conduct to causes for potential change or revocation of membership.
Passed by acclamation
Administrative Corrections: Would correct minor administrative or typographical errors in the bylaws
Passed by acclamation
Board Resolution:
Slightly amended how eye bank membership dues are calculated to more clearly illustrate
the importance of EBAA’s accreditation program as a benefit of membership.
Passed: 77.8% in favor; 15.6% opposed; 6.7% abstain
Annual Awards Dinner
Friday night EBAA hosted the annual Awards Dinner. Guests were greeted by a local high school jazz band during cocktail hour, and enjoyed Kansas City strips steaks as we honored this year’s award recipients.
2024 EBAA Awards Honorees
Each year, EBAA honors some of the best in eye banking and corneal transplantation. We also gave our thanks and appreciation to the 2022 – 2024 Chair of the Board of Directors.
Leonard Heise Award
Charles Pivoney, CEBT
Communication Optics Award
Teresa Ham
Crystal Cornea Award
Patty Jo Herndon
Gift of Sight Award
Staff Team
Scientific Symposium, Physician Luncheon, and Medical Director Symposium
The meeting concluded with Saturday’s highly anticipated Scientific Symposium, Physician Luncheon, and Medical Directors Symposium.
The Symposium highlighted the newest research and innovation in eye banking. Twelve abstracts and one invited session were presented during the symposium – the full program is available.
The Best Paper of Session Award, supported by the Eye Banking and Corneal Transplantation Journal, was presented to Simran Sarin from the University of Iowa for her presentation, “Ocular Surface Disease may be Associated with Allograft Dehiscence Following DALK and PK.”
Closing out #EBAA2024 was the Medical Director Symposium. The session featured presentations on infectious disease transmission, recent TB transmission cases, the varying roles of a medical director, how to encourage surgeons to broaden their acceptance of tissue, and a panel discussion on unique and interesting cases.
Thank you!
The EBAA Annual Meeting is a significant undertaking which wouldn’t happen without the help of many individuals. Thank you to all the sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, and volunteers who make this event possible! We appreciate all the organizations who donated supplies, instruments, and ocular tissue for the wet labs and demonstrations. We are indebted to the faculty and moderators who facilitate these learning opportunities.
We’ll see you in San Diego!