Gail Bleach, PhD, has been an Eye & Ear Foundation Ambassador since the program’s inception in 2020. Now she is also an Eye & Ear Foundation Board member.
“I am committed to doing what I can to further the research UPMC is doing in vision restoration,” she said. “My goal is to continue to work on both raising awareness and fundraising for EEF.”
She has already proven she can do both, with her Ambassador role and a transformational gift to EEF, which earned the rights to name a lab in the new Vision and Rehabilitation Institute at UPMC Mercy Pavilion. It will be called the Dr. Gail A. Bleach Lab for Ophthalmology Research.
For Dr. Bleach, the cause is personal as her brother is blind due to retinopathy of prematurity. She created the Gail Bleach Vision Research Foundation as a vehicle for her friends, family, and the public to join her in supporting vision research.
Dr. Bleach is the first Board member from the Washington DC area, which will allow her to “be part of the process of spreading the word about the cutting-edge research and development at UPMC to a larger audience.”