Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute founder honored
The Villager – June 20, 2019, By Bob Sweeney
Dr. J. Bronwyn Bateman, the former chair of the University of Colorado Department of Ophthalmology and the founding director of the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute received the A. Edward Maumenee Medal for Distinguished Service at the 34th Pan-American Ophthalmology Congress in Cancun, Mexico on May 25, 2019.
The award recognized Dr. Bateman, Past President of the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology, for her outstanding leadership of ophthalmology education, patient care programs and cultural exchange The Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology was founded by Drs. Harry Gradle of Chicago, Moacyr Alvaro of Sao Paolo, Brazil and Conrad Berens of New York City In 1939. The PAAO is now the oldest supranational regional organization in ophthalmology.
The biennial congress in Cancun had 4400 attendees from Canada to the southern tip of Chili and Argentina. The organization is celebrating its 90th anniversary in advanced continuing education, training resident educators and provides scholarship for fellowship training in universities.
Sharing the honor with Dr. Bateman was Dr. Bradley Straatsma of the Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. Dr. Straatsma was president of the organization during a critical growth period relocating PAAO to Arlington, Texas and reorganizing governance within the organization still followed today.
Dr. Straatsma is a legend in eye care and led the Stein Eye Institute to great heights during his tenure at the UCLA facility. As her leader he relates, “It was a distinct honor and pleasure for me to be co-recipient of the Maumenee Medal with Dr. Bateman. My respect and admiration for Dr. Bateman commenced during her ophthalmology residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and increased during her fellowships in pediatric ophthalmology and genetics as she achieved certification by both the American Board of Ophthalmology and the prestigious American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics. As a member of the faculty, she advanced to Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California.”
Dr. Straatsma continued his praise of Dr. Bateman, “She was recruited by Colorado and Wyoming Lions and the University of Colorado to become the first woman chair of the School of Medicine and in this capacity expanded the Department of Ophthalmology and was the founding director of the Rocky Mountain Lion Eye Institute at the University of Colorado campus, Aurora, Co.”
Dr. Bateman’s rose through the ranks of PAAO to become the president from 2003 to 2005. Her goals were to bring the emerging countries of the organization to greater activity in the organization. She has worked with colleagues’ Drs. Francisco Contreras of Peru and Rafael Cortez of Venezuela in establishing a fellowship for sub-specialty-training for young ophthalmologists from Honduras. The three have recently worked to successfully establish a first-ever biennial PAAO regional meeting in Central America with Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador to be conducted in 2020 in Honduras.
Drs. Straatsma and Bateman received the honor established in 1983 for exemplary service to PAAO for continuing education, the prevention of blindness and the promotion of scientific and cultural exchange among ophthalmologists in the Western Hemisphere.
The award is named after Dr. Maumenee of the Wilmer Institute at the Johns Hopkins University who was an early supporter of the PAAO and founded the PAAO Foundation.
Currently, Dr. Bateman is a clinical professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, Los Angeles. With a strong commitment to excellence, she continues to lead Pan-American Association programs to enhance ophthalmology patient care and training in the nations of Central America.
Dr. Bateman is married to Dr. Douglas Hershey, and they reside in California and Colorado
