The PCVIS Annual Meeting, held October 22, 2025, in Pittsburgh and online, celebrated a year of advocacy, growth, and collaboration across the CVI community. Co-Presidents Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald and Christine Roman led the event, joined by members, professionals, and families from around the world to advance the organization’s mission of education, awareness, and support for children and youth with cortical visual impairment (CVI). Thank you to The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh for hosting our event.
The meeting had more than 20 online attendees and about 40 in-person attendees, including a handful of CVI self-advocates.
Advocacy in Many Forms
This year, PCVIS strengthened its presence across several advocacy fronts:
- Self-Advocacy: PCVIS launched a call for CVI self-advocates to join its board, ensuring lived experience shapes future priorities.
- Policy Advocacy: The Legislative & Policy Committee discussed efforts to support the Early Detection of Vision Impairment Act and develop model state bills promoting early CVI identification. Members were encouraged to stay alert to policy updates and share PCVIS action alerts on social media.
- Digital Advocacy: Partnerships flourished — including a social media collaboration with Epilepsy Alliance Louisiana and the CVI Hotline with CVI Now, which allows individuals to share personal stories.
- Education Advocacy:
- April’s CVI Literacy Awareness Month campaign, led by Jonathan Hooper and Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald, became one of PCVIS’s most engaging social initiatives yet.
- Board members traveled to numerous conferences to spread the word about CVI.
- PCVIS was also the keynote sponsor for Innovations in CVI, supporting travel for the founders of The Red Balloon Foundation, based in South Africa.
- Research Advocacy: The CVI Knowledge Base launched to make peer-reviewed research more accessible to professionals and families.
- Member Advocacy: Conference ticket giveaways and outreach efforts continued to make professional learning accessible for all members. Plus, PCVIS launched many new membership categories this year.
- Ethical Advocacy: PCVIS formally adopted a Code of Ethics emphasizing respect, inclusion, and integrity.
Louie, our CVI Literacy Month mascot, was featured in a series of posts on how to make CVI-accessible literacy materials.
Follow us on social media to receive action alerts and policy updates relevant to CVI.
New this year, the CVI Knowledge Base summarizes research articles to make them more accessible.
PCVIS Co-President Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald reviews the code of ethics.
Looking Ahead: The Year of Storytelling
PCVIS announced that storytelling will be the cornerstone of its 2026 initiatives. Thanks to a generous donation from member Erin Curler, PCVIS is launching a digital awareness campaign developed by KidGlov, a mission-driven marketing agency. The campaign will reach doctors, educators, and families across Meta platforms — with additional amplification from Google Ad Grants.
Centering storytelling ensures that the human experience drives advocacy, policy, training, and awareness.
Executive Director Jessica Marquardt shows off draft imagery that will be used in the CVI digital awareness campaign.
Get Involved
Members are encouraged to contribute by:
- Submitting photos, quotes, or short videos to support the digital campaign and professional development projects
- Completing the professional development survey to shape upcoming learning opportunities
- Joining a committee to help drive initiatives forward
As the evening wrapped up, attendees mingled over food and laughter, joined committees, recorded video testimonials, and celebrated another successful year of connection and purpose.
