Congratulations Dr. George W. Pfohl
George W. Pfohl, MD to Receive the 2018 Herb Siegel Visionary Award From The Olmsted Center For Sight
ECVA Ophthalmologist to be honored at Seventh Annual Dining In The Dark Gala on September 11.
George W. Pfohl, MD, a board-certified ophthalmologist and partner at Eye Care & Vision Associates (ECVA), will receive the 2018 Herb Siegel Visionary Award from the Olmsted Center For Sight (OCS) at the organization’s annual Dining In The Dark Gala on Tuesday, September 11 at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.
The award is given annually to an individual who has "established a reputation for excellence within the visually impaired community and demonstrated outstanding leadership; made an exemplary contribution to improve the lives of those who are blind and visually impaired; been of outstanding service to the community through activities or endeavors consistent with the mission of the OCS; had a significant positive impact on OCS's success in fulfilling its mission, and gone above and beyond the scope of their core duties and played a leadership role in their organization and the blind community."
"We are thrilled to present this year's Visionary Award to Dr. Pfohl," says Renee DiFlavio, senior vice president at the Olmsted Center For Sight. "His many years of service to the Center, as well as his multiple volunteer medical mission treks to Peru and other underprivileged countries to provide routine eye exams, medical treatment and minor surgical procedures, perfectly match the criteria for this award. He has more than earned this recognition."
Before joining ECVA in 1999, Dr. Pfohl was in private practice for nearly 20 years, seeing patients at his (now ECVA’s) Elmwood Avenue office in downtown Buffalo. A graduate of the the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Pfohl completed his internship at Deaconess Hospital and his residency in ophthalmology at Buffalo General Hospital. Licensed in the state of New York, Dr. Pfohl is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology; the Erie County Medical Society; the American Association of Ophthalmology; the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the Buffalo Ophthalmological Society. Previously, he was an assistant professor of ophthalmology at SUNY at Buffalo. He and his wife reside in West Falls, NY.
Dr. Pfohl is the fourth person to receive the Visionary Award since its inception in 2015. The award is named for Herb Siegel, a trustee of the Statler Foundation who was instrumental in giving the Statler Center (a program of Olmsted Center for Sight that provides local and national career training for people who are blind and visually impaired) its first $1 million in 1999, to assist in the startup of the program. Since then, more than 650 students from 36 states and four foreign countries have graduated the program. The unemployment rate for people who are blind is approximately 77 percent, but the job placement rate for OCS’s graduates is almost 80 percent. This program would not be possible without Herb Siegel and the Statler Foundation.
For more information on the Dining In The Dark Gala, visit http://olmstedcenter.org/event/dining-dark-gala-2018/.
About Olmsted Center For Sight (OSC)
Founded in 1907, the Olmsted Center for Sight (OCS) is a 501(c) (3) community-based organization that provides traditional blind rehabilitation and ancillary vision-related services to sight-impaired individuals of all ages who reside within the eight-county region of Western New York. OCS’ mission is to help individuals who are blind and visually impaired reach their highest levels of independence. For more information, visit http://www.olmstedcenter.org.
