About PCVIS
Executive Officers
Cullen Waugh
President
Territory Manager, Bard Peripheral Vascular
Bio
Cullen Waugh’s son, Griffen (11), was born at 24 weeks gestation, weighing one pound and ten ounces. He was diagnosed with cortical visual impairment at 9 months old. His wife Alisha, relying on her background as a physical therapist, researched CVI and neuroplasticity. They found Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy’s book and made an appointment with her to evaluate Griffen’s functional vision. They established Fundamentals First, a CVI consultancy, to help other families and professionals learn how to appropriately serve the visual needs of children with CVI. Cullen is avid about teaching parents, friends, educators, and medical professionals about CVI and it’s pervasive impact on all areas of child development. Cullen is a Territory Manager for a medical device company, bringing 19 years of medical and business acumen to the PCVIS board. He has previously served on other boards, beginning in college as the educational outreach chair for the Ohio State University Student-Athlete Advisory board and eventually becoming President, as well as serving on Ohio State’s Athletic Council alongside presidents, deans, athletic directors, and university faculty. He was selected as OSU’s representative on the Big Ten and NCAA Student-Athlete boards while at Ohio State. He currently sits on the board of The CVI Academy, an organization devoted to promoting academic and social success for students with CVI. Cullen and his family reside in Wadsworth, Ohio.
Nicole Hooper, OD
Vice President
Visiting Assistant Professor, University Eye Institute, University of Houston
Bio
Dr. Nicole Hooper has a clinical interest in all facets of low vision rehabilitation, with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary collaborative care. She enjoys teaching and learning, and finds working in low vision rehabilitation to be both challenging and rewarding. Nicole received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from University of Wyoming and earned her Doctor of Optometry from Southern California College of Optometry. She completed a residency in Low Vision Rehabilitation at University of Houston College of Optometry.
Lindsay Hillier, MEd
Past President
Manager, Training and Quality Assurance, Surrey Place, Ontario Blind-Low Vision Early Intervention Program
Bio
Lindsay Hillier has worked in the field of Early Childhood services (birth to five years) with children who are visually impaired for over 29 years. Her background is in Early Childhood Education and she holds a master’s in Special Education: Visual Impairment. Lindsay has been a speaker at a number of conferences related to CVI and its impact on professional service delivery. A big part of Lindsay’s work is to communicate the needs of young children with visual impairments and additional disabilities to community professionals working in this field. Under her work with the Ontario Blind-Low Vision Early Intervention Program at the Training and Development Centre, she supports the Blind-Low Vision Early Intervention agencies across the province. Lindsay provides coaching, training, and workshops to community partners. She has spent much time reviewing the current research and striving to promote the implementation of evidence-based practices in early childhood learning settings. Lindsay believes it is the environment (including the teaching approach) that is the primary barrier to learning. It’s her main goal to build capacity in our childcare settings, schools, and children’s homes.
Seeking Candidates for Treasurer
This new position is open for candidates with a suitable background.
Board of Directors
Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald
Board Member
Teacher of the Visually Impaired and Journalist
Bio
Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald is a certified teacher of students with visual impairments and a journalist. She has served students with CVI in classroom settings and after-school programs, designed to focus on all areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum. She is currently working with students ages 3-21 in Miami, FL. In her daily work, Francesca is devoted to taking all opportunities to share her knowledge about CVI with fellow professionals, school administrators and families. She enjoys sharing her experiences and all she has learned from her students, particularly their journey with literacy and extracurricular activities, through writing. Francesca holds a Master of Education in Blindness and Visual Impairment from Salus University, a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University, and is a Perkins-Roman CVI Range Endorsed professional.
Rebecca Davis
Board Member
Founder and Former Development Director and Parent Adviser, Visually Impaired Preschool Services (VIPS) Indiana
Bio
Rebecca Davis is the mother of two teenage daughters and a CVI parent advocate. After witnessing firsthand the challenges of finding appropriate early intervention for her visually impaired daughter, Rebecca became determined to improve services for other families. VIPS Indiana was and remains the first out-of-state office of the nationally recognized non-profit Visually Impaired Preschool Services (VIPS), based in Louisville, KY. Rebecca facilitated the growth of direct services from eight families in 2011 to nearly 300 families throughout Indiana by 2015. As Development Director, Rebecca researched policy and lobbied for policy change in Indiana’s early intervention system. She raised funds to support direct service through grant writing, event planning, and public speaking. In 2017, Rebecca began a blog, CVI Momifesto, to offer advocacy guidance and to share stories with other parents of children with cortical visual impairment. Rebecca began working at Perkins School for the Blind in 2018, in the hopes of learning more about how to teach children with CVI and to support their families.
Kerri Dietz-Pillen, OD
Board Member
Optometrist and Owner, Bellevue Vision Clinic
Dr. Kerri Pillen has practiced general optometry care for more than 30 years, specializing in vision therapy for patients of all ages, particularly after brain injury or stroke. She obtained a degree in optometry from The Ohio State University, College of Optometry.
Jonathan Graves, MEd, CTVI
Board Member
Certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired and Certified Assistive Technology Specialist
Bio
Jonathan Graves has supported vision instruction in both itinerant and classroom teaching positions at Foundation for Blind Children in Arizona, where he focused on braille and technology instruction and provided assistive technology assessments for children The interdisciplinary clinic has a focus unique to the Middle East: cortical visual impairment. With guidance from Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy, Jonathan works to assess and support children with CVI throughout a variety of therapies. He has worked to raise awareness about CVI and appropriate interventions in the region through presenting at regional conferences and by meeting with local doctors, hospitals, schools, and therapy clinics. Jonathan holds the Perkins-Roman CVI Range Endorsement, and a MEd from University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Karen Harpster, PhD
Board Member
Clinical Researcher and Occupational Therapist, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Bio
Karen Harpster, PhD, evaluates and treats children with neurodevelopmental disorders, largely focusing on children with cortical visual impairment. She also conducts intervention research involving children with neurodevelopmental disabilities such as CVI, cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, and autism. Karen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati and a faculty member for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Program. Karen received her PhD at The Ohio State University.
Richard Legge, MD
Board Member
Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Truhlsen Eye Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Bio
Dr. Richard “Skip” Legge has been interested in improving the understanding of children with CVI since he began to practice in 1991. It has been his enduring professional passion to address what children with CVI see, how they see, how we can help them to see better, and how we can make their lives better. It’s this interest that led him to found the American Conference on Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment in 2012, for which he serves as Program Director. He believes that we need to first establish an interdisciplinary knowledge base on CVI, and that annual meetings and scientific publications are crucial. The next phase is to design scientific inquiry that will answer questions regarding diagnosis and therapy of brain-related vision loss in children. Skip is a Fellow of the North-American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and serves as Immediate Past President of PCVIS.
Toby Lunstad
Board Member
Parent and Occupational Therapist
Bio
Toby Lunstad is the parent of 5 year old Addilynn, who acquired CVI after experiencing a traumatic brain injury from prolonged seizures in January 2018. Addilynn has a rare genetic disorder which is the cause of the seizures and other global developmental delays.
MaryAnne Roberto, CTVI
Board Member
Teacher of the Visually Impaired and Perkins-Roman CVI Endorsed Specialist, Envision Consulting LLC
Bio
MaryAnne Roberto has been a teacher of the visually impaired since 1983. She has worked at Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, PA, as a classroom teacher in the Early Childhood Program, as well as the Early Intervention Program where she was a Teacher Mentor and an Early Intervention Specialist. MaryAnne is the owner of Envision CVI Consulting, contracting with local school districts to provide services for children with cortical visual impairment and consulting for families across the country. MaryAnne attended the PA CVI Mentorship Program (2010-2011) at Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children where she began working with children with CVI in earnest. Since that training, MaryAnne has implemented a two-year CVI training program at Overbrook School for the Blind and has conducted numerous trainings for Early Intervention programs, service coordinators, and evaluation teams. A frequent presenter, MaryAnne has traveled to conferences across the United States, Canada, and recently to Taiyuan, China, on behalf of Perkins International. MaryAnne has presented webinars for Perkins School for the Blind eLearning and is a course moderator for Perkins through their online eLearning program. MaryAnne presented at the American Conference Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment in Omaha, NE, in 2017 and 2018.
MaryAnne is married and is the mother of eight children: four biological children and four children with special needs who were adopted from China. She and her husband live with their family in Bucks County, PA.
Christine Roman-Lantzy, PhD
Board Member
Director, Pediatric View, The Western Pennsylvania Hospital
Bio
Christine Roman-Lantzy, PhD, was raised in Michigan and received degrees in Elementary Education and Special Education/Visual Impairment at Michigan State University. She worked as an itinerant teacher of the visually impaired in the greater Pittsburgh, PA, Her doctoral studies were also completed at Pitt; her dissertation, Validation of an Interview Instrument to Identify Behaviors Characteristic of Cortical Visual Impairment in Infants, revealed that caregivers of infants can reliably report regarding the presence or absence of the characteristics of CVI. Christine is the Director of The Pediatric View Program at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital and a former Project Leader of the CVI Project at The American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, KY. She has lectured extensively regarding the CVI educational materials she has developed. These materials include: The CVI Range, an assessment of functional vision, and The CVI Resolution Chart & CVI/O&M Resolution Chart, used to plot and monitor progress. She is author of Cortical Visual Impairment: An Approach to Assessment and Intervention and Cortical Visual Impairment: Advanced Principles.