News & Stories

1995 - 2023

Retired Attorney Bob Rush's association with Iowa Lions Eye Bank stretches back to 1969, when he was a law student at the University of Iowa.

Among those featured in the 2025 Dare to Discover campaign, sponsored by the Office of the Vice President of Research, is Simran Sarin, a student in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, whose research examines cornea transplant outcomes.

When Greg Schmidt arrived in Pondicherry in mid-November of 2024, he was greeted with a banana leaf on his door, welcoming him to the city in southeastern India. Schmidt, director of research and business development at Iowa Lions Eye Bank, traveled to Pondicherry with Dr. Kanwal Singh Matharu, assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Iowa, to visit Aravind Eye Hospital and their eye bank.

In the field of ophthalmology, few challenges are as daunting as preventing cell death in the cornea. Dr. Mark Greiner and his team at the University of Iowa are at the forefront of this battle, pioneering research that could revolutionize the treatment of corneal diseases.

Pat McIntosh lives a busy life in Dunkerton, Iowa. She lives on a farm that has been in her husband James’ family for seven generations, growing corn, beans, and hay, and raising beef cows. McIntosh has lived on the farm for 43 years and raises hogs and sheep for show as well.

It's uncommon to need a transplant for even a single part of the body, let alone three. But for John Riehl of Iowa City, receiving cornea, kidney and pancreas transplants not only saved his life but also profoundly enriched it.

Eye Donation Month is observed each November, and this year's theme is "We Can See Clearly Now."

Jennifer Konfrst, who is a professor of public relations at Drake University and has been the Minority Leader in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2021, received an academic scholarship from the Johnston Lions Club during her senior year in high school.

My wife Lori has always been a giving person. She had started this as a teenager doing mission work outside the USA in Mexico at the age of 16. She later went to college as a nursing student at the University of Iowa while joining the Iowa National Guard in 1989 as a Combat Medic receiving her training at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.