Our mission: The Minnesota-based Sight & Hearing Association works to prevent the needless loss of vision and hearing through the development of effective screening, education and research programs.

How we came to be: The Sight & Hearing Association (SHA), a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, was founded in 1939 as the Minnesota Society for the Prevention of Blindness, when Dr. Frank E. Burch, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota, recognized the need to end blindness from preventable causes. In 1979, the organization added the preservation of hearing to its mission when it merged with the Pre-School Medical Survey of Vision and Hearing (PSMSVH). PSMSVH was founded in 1959 by Grace Stoltze, a St. Croix Valley, Minn., resident who believed all children were entitled to medically oriented vision and hearing screening to detect treatable and potentially handicapping eye and ear conditions.

Today's Sight & Hearing Association is the only organization in the country working toward the prevention of, rather than the adaptation to, vision and hearing loss.

Staff:

Kathy Webb Executive Director kwebb@sightandhearing.org Julee Sylvester Director of Public Relations/Marketing jlps@sightandhearing.org Barb Painter Program Developer 651.292.1381

Karen Klevar Screening Director kklevar@comcast.net Bernice Burgy Program Assistant burgy@sightandhearing.org

Screeners:

Pat Archambault Patty Flynn Cheryl Fredrickson Kris Hawkins Karin Kane

Karen Klevar Kathy Noel Cathy Stroncek Cindy Vana Bob Wojcicki

Board of Directors:

Officers Bruce Nicholson, President Dale Olson, Vice President Joe Mule, Treasurer Steve Cuddy, Secretary Kathy Ohmann, Ex-officio Directors Karen M. Arnold Charles F. Barer, M.D. John A. Coverstone, M.S. Jafar Hasan, M.D. Barbara L. Horton Mrunalini Parvataneni, M.D.