As EBAA celebrates Women’s History Month, we wanted to share some perspectives from women in eye banking.
For more on women in EBAA, see our Women’s History Month page.
Balancing Work with Motherhood and More
Caithlin Lopes
Eversight
Director of Business Development
My interest in the donation and transplantation field began in high school. My stepdad was a donation coordinator for an OPO and I remember watching him pump kidneys in our garage. The field has come a long way since.
I volunteered my summers with the OPO and learned a lot more about how the whole process worked. One of my first jobs out of college was for New England Donor Services and then I parented full time for six years when my children were young. When it was time to return to working outside the home, I was given an excellent opportunity to get back to donation and transplantation by working at an eye bank. And the rest is history.
I have been with Eversight for a decade and currently serve as the Director of Business Development. I love the role we play in our community for donors, their families and recipients, and I am honored to work with our surgeon partners to help restore sight to their patients.
It is hard to “balance” any job with parenting and the 24/7 nature of eye banking adds an extra wrinkle. During my time at Eversight, I have been given the flexibility to be there for my family when needed. My kids also take a lot of pride in what I do and in our work at Eversight, which is rewarding. As with anything, I have found that you must be comfortable constantly adjusting personal and professional priorities—a skill that can take time to develop.
I have had the privilege of working with current Eversight President/CEO Diane Hollingsworth throughout my tenure. She is a remarkable mentor. Her guidance, support and wisdom have been invaluable, empowering me to grow personally and professionally. Having a mentor like Diane has been instrumental in my career at Eversight.
Eye banking is a wonderful opportunity for women to feel empowered by contributing to rewarding and impactful work. It is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. I hope women in eye banking continue encouraging and supporting all colleagues, women or otherwise, so that eye banking can continue getting better every day as we work toward our shared mission to restore sight worldwide.
The Importance of Strong Woman Leadership
Cathy McClory
Eversight
Director, Quality Improvement & Compliance
Before joining what was then the Michigan Eye Bank, now Eversight, I had worked in ICU for five years at a hospital in Detroit. I loved the challenge that role presented in caring for critically ill patients, and the joy I felt in making a difference in their lives. It was wonderful to see those individuals stabilize then transfer to a general floor before going home.
Sadly, there were times that wasn’t the case for our patients, and for a few fortunate families, donation became a source of hope for them. Having that experience piqued my interest in the field of transplantation, so I answered an ad in the Detroit Free Press for a nurse to work in eye banking, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mary Beth Danneffel, a leader in our clinical operations division, taught me all about eye banking and served as a role model for becoming active in EBAA. I had my first daughter while working as a manager in the lab. While the eye bank offered paid maternity leave prior to passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the demands of my job made it a challenge to come back to work full-time, and part-time work just wasn’t a possibility in that role.
I left the eye bank for three months before Mary Beth offered me a different role, which allowed me to work part-time and still contribute significantly in a different capacity: writing policies and procedures and working on statistical reporting, as well as a number of other tasks.
This was a huge benefit for both of us. I had the opportunity to do two things that I loved—being a mother and working for a great organization—and inadvertently helped make this same thing a possibility for women who were to follow me.
Soon after, I became the lab manager again, had another daughter, and went back to part-time work while my daughters were young before returning full-time and moving into the Quality Improvement & Compliance department. At every step, Eversight was there to support, challenge, and encourage me to grow and thrive.
I have been extremely fortunate in my work life in that I never felt that my gender impeded my ability to take on new roles or responsibilities, nor did I feel it had been a deciding factor in my advancement. I am grateful for all the wonderful work I’ve been able to do as a result.
Eversight historically has a culture of strong leadership by women. In fact, since 1989 our organization has been led predominantly by women who have demonstrated a positive and effective management style. So, to any women considering a career in eye banking, what better work to do than to help change people’s lives?
As we celebrate women in eye banking during Women’s History Month, I am reminded of this quote from Helen Keller, a pinnacle figure in eye banking history.
“When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.” –Helen Keller
Let’s keep making miracles and changing lives.
The Value of Woman Mentors
Carrie Wolverton
Eversight
Global Development Director
“On the day my daughter was born, I decided she would never know what it means to be small, soft, and passive. It was a dream that she would live in a world where there were no ‘female leaders’ but just leaders.’” – Sheryl Sandberg
As a girl growing up in a small rural farming community in the ‘80s, the societal expectations pushed onto me were not all negative, but many were unrealistic. From a very young age, girls learn to be kind, gentle, and quiet. All the while young boys were rewarded for their determination and drive, which I admired. In high school, I wasn’t handed a college application but a job application, with the promise of making money working in a factory. The only other option: get married and start a family.
Fast forward two years later, I worked two jobs and had money, benefits, and a car. I was engaged and had an apartment. I thought I was living the “American dream.” My mentor at the time was a highly educated woman who received her PhD from the University of Michigan. I admired so many things about her; she was everything I wanted to be. Her confidence, humor, and drive were inspiring.
She was seen unfavorably by the men in her industry, but her success proved otherwise. She could see that I desired more and that I needed to grow. Under her guidance, she set me on a new course that would lead me into the next chapter of my life. I earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Michigan five years later. However, during those five years of study, I remained small, soft, and passive as I was in a program that was predominantly male at the time.
Soon after, I began a career at the Michigan Eye Bank, now known as Eversight. This is where my real growth began. I walked in on my first day in 2001 and met our President and CEO, Florence Johnston, someone I came to admire greatly. There is no question in my mind that working at Eversight, in the positions that I have, has empowered me in ways I would have never imagined or expected. My life has been both enhanced and enriched tenfold. My daughter would never know her mother as anything other than determined and driven. This is all thanks to my many mentors, not only at Eversight, but within the entire field of eye banking and beyond.
Currently, I am the Global Development Director at Eversight, an organization with a high representation of women in senior leadership positions. Diane Hollingsworth, our current President/CEO, is a true inspiration and a beacon of light.
So, as we recognize Women’s History Month, I am proud to celebrate the progress made toward achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. I am honored to work for an organization where there is diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s rewarding to witness a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries, and it is my hope that someday, I will be someone’s beacon of light and inspire others in a way that my female predecessors have inspired me.
