LEXINGTON, MA – Vision-Aid, a non-profit organization serving the visually impaired, announced several notable additions to its leadership team for 2024-25.
This year’s 100% volunteer Vision-Aid Leadership team includes its 15-member Board of Directors (BOD), 15-member Board of Advisors (BOA), and 6-member Council of Ambassadors (COA).
The combined team includes an eminently qualified and diverse range of members drawn from a wide variety of fields including Ophthalmology, Optometry, Occupational Therapy, Finance, Technology, Health, Management, Academia, and Law. Notably, 20 of the 36 members in the leadership team are women.
The new team begins its tenure in July 2024 and has as its immediate focus its annual mega-event on July 21st. This year also features a special celebration for Vision-Aid’s 20th birthday!
The show will also be live-streamed on Zoom. Vision-Aid has a track record of holding popular, soldout community events with 700+ attending each year for the past 15 years.
This year’s additions to the leadership team include:
Dr. Yogeshwar Dayal
Dr Yogeshwar Dayal is a graduate from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, where he also obtained his Postgraduate training in Pathology, before proceeding to the USA for further specialization in 1968. He, his wife Shyama and family have since lived in the Greater Boston area.
After broadening his professional horizons at Memorial Hospital in Worcester and the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, he joined the staff of the New England Medical Center and the faculty of the Tufts University School of Medicine. During the next 35 years or more, Dr Dayal was actively involved in patient-related activities, research, teaching of medical students, residents and fellows in training etc., besides authoring or co-authoring several books, chapters and numerous publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has been a member or office-bearer in several regional, national and international scientific societies and organizations.
Dr. Dayal retired from professional life in 2017 and now lives with his wife in Lincoln, MA. He has been an ardent supporter of VisionAid for the past several years and looks forward to furthering its impact In the future.
Dr. Neelam Sihag
Graduated from S.P. Medical College, Bikaner, Rajasthan in 1967. Immigrated to the USA in 1973. Did Residency in Psychiatry at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Brighton, MA. Diplomate American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. In Private Practice from 1981-2016. Chief Of Psychiatry and Medical Director at Lowell General Hospital from 1988-2022. President Indian Medical Association of New England in 1996. Member Governing Body of Lowell General hospital. Volunteer at a health Fair organized by LASA twice a year in Lowell.
Vision-aid is also adding two members to its Council of Ambassadors (COA)
Sandhya (Sandy) Subramaniam
Sandhya (Sandy) Subramaniam has a strong background as an optometrist trained from the Elite school of optometry and Sankara Nethralaya (Chennai, India) and in Vision Science from University of Missouri – St Louis. She has worked in primary and specialty clinics at Sankara Nethralaya and also in a research capacity at LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad. She moved to the ophthalmic industry in various roles to support ophthalmic product development for the last 10+ years. She is passionate about the field of eye care and looks forward to any opportunity that involves learning, knowledge sharing and providing help and support to those who need it.
Sailaja Manda
Sailaja Manda has been working with Dr. Eliezer Peli at Mass. Eye and Ear, an affiliate of Harvard Medical Schools since 2017. (Dr. Peli is a globally renowned low vision expert with many books and innovations to his credit) Sailaja loves being involved in the design, development and testing of devices for visual field expansion in persons with low vision, exploring the various functional aspects of low vision and how they impact daily life. This passion first developed in college with her very first exposure to the subject of low vision management and has not diminished since. She worked at Sankara Nethralaya at Chennai at first broadening her exposure to the management of low vision and later earned a fellowship in the Low Vision and Management from LVPEI foundation.
Following this, Sailaja pursued a masters degree in low vision, collaborating with IIT, Madras to develop a low cost electronic telescope device. The thing that excites her most is working with teams comprising members from various cross disciplines such as electric or mechanical or bio engineering and vision science and bringing them together as a cohesive unit to innovate a new piece of technology. She has been one of the two editors of a book :EV’s Low Vision management with Dr. Sarika Gopalakrishnan. She has also completed a Masters degree in Psychology.
Outgoing members
COA member Dr. Arun Kumar and BOA member Ritu Chawla have completed their terms and opted to roll off . The Vision-Aid Leadership team expressed its grateful thanks to them for their invaluable service. Ronak Wakhlu, who was Youth President completed his term and his outstanding service was also appreciated by the leadership team.
Incoming Youth Presidents – Anya and Zubin Gupta
Vision-Aid also announced that Anya and Zubin, 15-year-old twins from Lexington are its new Youth Presidents for the coming year. They are rising juniors at Lexington High School. Their academic interests include math, science, and computer science. Additionally, they both hold the rank of third-degree black belt in karate and take pleasure in mentoring junior belts at their dojo. Anya and Zubin share a love for a wide range of music genres and record music together via their band Twynphony Rocks. Anya and Zubin are looking forward to helping to evangelize and advocate for Vision-Aid’s cause with youth in the community.
About the July 21st annual event
This years show “The Dancers Pledge” features over 40 talented dancers and several dance teachers from New England, working under the guidance of renowned and award-winning dance choreographer and producer from India, Kalaimamani Madurai R. Muralidaran, assisted by Boston area dance teachers and artistic directors Jeyanthi Ghatraju and Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy. For a full list of dancers, or for more details of the event, and to get tickets and sponsorships, visit www.visionaid.org/event
