Iowa Lions Eye Bank | Spotlight

Services and staff will be featured each month on the digital monitors and in the Weekly Update as a way of showcasing the various aspects and people of our department.

April is Donate Life Month and our staff spotlight this month is the Iowa Lions Eye Bank Constituent Relations team.

Did you know...

The Iowa Lions Eye Bank:

• Is a national leader in eye banking
• Provided 791 donor corneas for transplant in 2018
• Engages in innovative research of corneal diseases
• Established in partnership between UI Department of Ophthalmology and the Iowa Lions in 1955

Ashley Funkhauser, Director of Constituent Relations
Joined the Eye Bank January 2018

Hobbies/Interests:

• Staying active: yoga, currently training for 'Market to Market Relay Race'
• Foodie
• Live music
• Hanging out with her dog

Ashley Dockendorf, Constituent Relations Coordinator
Joined the Eye Bank July 2017

Hobbies/Interests:

• Watching Hawkeye Sports
• Professional dog sitter
• Spending time with her family and being a mom to her 4 month old daughter, Macy

Deb Schuett, Constituent Relations Coordinator
Joined the Eye Bank in 2002, previously at UIHC

Hobbies/Interests:

• Both Iowa and Iowa State fan (daughter is an Iowa State graduate)
• Antiquing
• Chasing the grandkids around

Ellie Engelbrecht, Constituent Relations Coordinator
Joined the Eye Bank in February 2016 as a recovery technician before transitioning to her current role

Hobbies/Interests:

• Spending time with family and friends,
• Running, swimming laps (and laying by a pool), and reading
• Avid coffee drinker and can never say no to a good cheese plate or a Reese's cup

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Donation is important because...

Ashley D.

"...the amount of people that have regained their sight and vision because of the selfless donors that are willing to give ocular tissue. At this point in time there is no other way to get it, so without the donors we wouldn't be able to do any of the transplants."

"It's helpful to the family of the donor. We hear from those donor families about how their loved ones donation made their grieving process easier."

Ashley F.

"You realize how 1 in a million it really is, there is such a need for it and everything has to align perfectly for a transplant to happen. Working at the Eye Bank made me realize how big it really is."

Deb

"Working in the medical field, it's all about helping people, saving lives...and it seems like once donation became an option, to be able to take something that's no longer needed and use it to save or to enhance someone's life to make it better, it just becomes a 'Why not'? It's important because you're helping another human being."

"It gives the donor families hope that a little piece of their loved one is living on in someone else."

 

The best part of my job is...

Deb

"The letters. The letters that come in through our correspondence program between donor families and recipients, recipients never say thank you the same way. Every 40 or 50 letters that come in each month, every single one is different with how they say 'Thank You' to their donor family. The responses from the donor families are the ones that bring me to tears. The best part of my job is connecting."

 

What brought you to the Iowa Lions Eye Bank?

Ellie

"While studying at the University of Iowa I had a friend whose roommate was a recovery technician and I found the idea of eye transplant really interesting and immediately reached out for a job. After graduation I was still doing recoveries and got involved with the research team. From there, I knew I wanted to work full time at ILEB because I had a draw to the mission and loved knowing my work was directly impacting people in a positive way. After quite a few interviews, I landed the job as a constituent relations coordinator to educate and promote donation; without our donors and support from the public we wouldn't be able to do what we do."

Pictured: Ashley Funkhauser, Ashley Dockendorf, Deb Schuett

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Senior Design Day

Submitted by Dr. Audrey Ko-

Dr. Audrey Ko and Ocularist, Lindsay Pronk, BCO, BADO, worked with a biomedical engineering senior design team to develop a more realistic looking ocular prosthesis.

For more information about enucleation and evisceration surgery, check out our EyeRounds tutorial: http://bit.ly/2onPk0M

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Distinguished Alumni | Kathleen Digre, MD

Kathleen Digre, MD, Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Ophthalmology at Moran Eye Center and Iowa Eye alumna (81MD, 85R-Neurology, 87F) joined us at today's morning rounds. Dr. Digre is being recognized with a 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Carver College of Medicine over the weekend.

https://bit.ly/2ZM5tPc

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Alumni Roundtable

Iowa Eye alumna and former faculty, Dr. Beth Repp (00BA, 05MD) joined us for our most recent Alumni Roundtable, sharing her experience in academic, small rural practice, and large multi-specialty private practice settings. Beth's husband, Dan Repp, also joined the conversation to share a solo-practice perspective.

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National Student Employee Appreciation

Submitted by Dr. Arlene Drack-

Last week was National Student Employee Appreciation week!  Student employees in the Drack lab were thanked with chocolate Iowas and Java House cards for their excellent work. 

Pictured from left to right:  Arlene Drack, MD; student employees Elliot Stalter, Jacintha Thomas, and Aishwarya Kothapalli, and Wanda Pfeifer, OC(C), COMT.

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Donate Life Ceremony

Bruce and Tiffini Brockway spoke at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinic's recent Donate Life Ceremony, sharing the impact their son Garrett had through organ, tissue and cornea donation. Garrett's gift of donation has been used to enhance the lives of 132 people. The Brockways have started a group in honor of their late son called, Garrett's Path. The organization advocates for organ donation.

Full story featured on KCRG

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Geek Speak

Submitted by Jessica Bramow-

Windows 10 Roll-Out Initiative
All of the clinical machines have been upgraded to Windows 10.  And Scott is ½ way through the secretary computers and perimetry

Replacement Computers
We have a list of the oldest computers that are being used in the department. Those machines will be replaced in the very near future.

Gonioscopy.org
Gonioscopy.org has received a facelift.  It should be "live" sometime next week. We are waiting for HCIS to complete the server side component that will allow us to point the URL at the new server.  But you can get a sneak peek here:  http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/gonioscopy/index.htm

Iowa Glaucoma Curriculum
To keep in line with Gonioscopy and Eye Rounds, Dr. Alward requested a facelift for his Iowa Glaucoma Curriculum website as well.  This will go live at the same time gonioscopy.org goes live.  But you can get a sneak peek here:
http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/glaucoma-curriculum/index.htm

Tips & Tricks
Click HERE for a list of mini training videos.  Jess will be adding more content to this page soon!
If you've got ideas for what you'd like training on, please shoot Jess an email: Jessica-bramow@uiowa.edu

Ways to Contact Us for Help
Phone:  78107
Email:  OphthIT@healthcare.uiowa.edu
ESC Portal:  https://service.healthcare.uiowa.edu (click on the link in the tips & tricks section to learn how to submit a ticket properly, so that it gets routed to Ophthalmology IT)

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Lectures and Conferences