About PCVIS
Leadership Team
Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald, MEd, CTVI
Co-President
Teacher of the Visually Impaired and Journalist, CVI Collaborative Center, Miami Lighthouse for the Blind
Bio
Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald is a certified teacher of students with visual impairments and a journalist. She has worked with students with CVI of all ages, in classroom settings, and after-school programs, designed to focus on all areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum. She is currently working in Miami, FL, providing CVI-specific assessment, intervention, professional development, and support for teams working with students with CVI. Francesca holds a MEd 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.
Christine Roman-Lantzy, PhD
Co-President
Director, Pediatric View, The Children's Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center
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 Children's Home of Pittsburgh 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.
Jonathan Graves, MEd, CTVI
Secretary/Treasurer
Certified Teacher of the Visually Impaired and Certified Assistive Technology Specialist, Pediatric View
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 With guidance from Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy, Jonathan works to assess and support children with CVI through a variety of therapies. He has worked to raise awareness about CVI and appropriate interventions in the region by 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.
Jessica Marquardt
Executive Director
Bio
Like many parents of children with CVI, Jessica Marquardt has embraced the mission to advocate for her daughter and the growing population of people with brain-based visual impairments. After spending nearly 14 years in communication roles at a global software technology company, Jessica had the opportunity to make CVI advocacy her professional focus.
Board of Directors
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.
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 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.
Karen Harpster, PhD
Board Member
Occupational Therapist, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Bio
Karen Harpster received her Master’s in Occupational Therapy and PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences both from The Ohio State University. She is a clinician scientist and occupational therapist and has been at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital since 2011.
Sharon S. Lehman, MD
Board Member
Attending Pediatric Ophthalmologist, Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia
Bio
Dr. Sharon Lehman is an attending pediatric ophthalmologist at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she practices and teaches ophthalmology fellows, residents, and medical students. Dr. Lehman held the position of Chief of Ophthalmology for 25 years at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware.
Melinda Chang, MD
Board Member
Pediatric Neuro-ophthalmologist, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Bio
Dr. Melinda Chang is a Pediatric Neuro-ophthalmologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Chang’s research includes methods to assess visual function and functional vision in CVI and autism.
Lynn Elko
Board Member
Parent Advocate
Bio
Lynn Elko is Mom to an incredible CVI/AAC user, Emma. By implementing intentional, strategic CVI interventions, Emma progressed from mid-Phase II to high Phase III in just over 3 years showing the power of these adaptations to improve functional vision. Together, Lynn and Emma developed a customized robust AAC pageset for visual accessibility, specific to CVI. The development of Emma's AAC became the subject of a paper co-authored with researchers and clinicians, published in AJSLP (2023). The paper includes an evidence-based framework to develop user-specific systems. Lynn’s ongoing collaborations with Penn State researchers seeks to further access for individuals with CVI. Previously, Lynn was a VP of Ed Tech company and social entrepreneur. Lynn speaks at national and international conferences on the topics of CVI and CVI/AAC and is honored to officially serve PCVIS in their efforts on behalf of children with CVI.
Kathryne Hart
Board Member
Parent Advocate
Bio
Kathryne Hart is a mother of three children, supply planner in the chemical industry, and a CVI parent advocate. Her oldest child acquired CVI after Infantile Spasms seizures caused by a rare genetic disorder. While he was one of the lucky ones to be diagnosed by the age of 6 months old, Kathryne has struggled to find service providers knowledgeable about CVI to work with him In 2018, Kathryne became involved in PCVIS after attending the American Conference on Pediatric Brain-Based Visual Impairment. Inspired by other PCVIS parent members Kathryne connected with her state chapter President of AER and the Outreach Department at the Louisiana School for the Blind to bring the first CVI training to Louisiana in October 2018. Kathryne and several Louisiana CVI parent advocates then applied and graduated from Louisiana’s Partners in Policymaking in 2019. In 2019, Kathryne was appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to Louisiana’s State Interagency Council for Early Steps which advises and assists the Louisiana Department of Health on early intervention for children birth to 3. Kathryne also served as Chairperson of the Council for two years before stepping down in 2022. At the time Kathryne left the Council, half of the parent members of the Council had a child with diagnosed or suspected CVI. Kathryne continues to speak at school board meetings, state department of education meetings, and at legislative committees on the importance of early identification of CVI, universal design for learning, and presuming potential of all students, even those with severe or complex disabilities. Her proudest accomplishment is when an educator or parent tells her how another child was identified and supported because of what they learned from her testimony.
Mary Zatta, PhD
Board Member
Director of CVI Training, CVI Center, Perkins School for the Blind
Bio
Mary C. Zatta earned her PhD from Boston College in 2003 in Educational Administration. She has worked at Perkins for more than 40 years – 30 years as a teacher then administrator in the Deafblind Program and then developing and managing Perkins eLearning.
Stephanie Steffer, CTVI
Board Member
Director, CViConnect
Bio
Stephanie Steffer is the Business Director of CViConnect and helped to develop the CViConnect platform. As a teacher of the visually impaired, she has significant experience supporting students with CVI in the classroom and now collaborates with teachers across the country.
Mara LaViola, JD
Board Member
Parent Advocate and Special Education Consultant
Bio
Mara, an accomplished graduate of Cornell University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, is not only a seasoned advocate for children and youth with disabilities but, more importantly, a devoted mother.