Torrey V.A. DeKeyser, Executive Director
Torrey DeKeyser joined the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama (ESFA) as Executive Director in 1999, following a 20-year career in university advancement and administration within the University of Alabama System, including both the University of Alabama (her alma mater) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Ms. DeKeyser is responsible to the EyeSight Foundation governing board in all aspects of the foundation’s work. As a charitable grant making organization dedicated to serving as a catalyst for improving eyesight through education, research and access to care in Alabama, ESFA awards $2.5 million in grants annually. In 2012 the EyeSight Foundation was named Outstanding Charitable Organization by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Active in the philanthropic community, she belongs to state, regional and national funders groups, including Alabama Giving, for which she is past-president of the Board of Directors. She has been a member of Grantmakers in Health and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF).
Within the eye care community, Ms. DeKeyser is Chair of the Prevent Blindness Board of Directors, where she also has served as Board Secretary and as Co-Chair of its Public Health and Policy Committee. She is involved with the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research/Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, as well as the Priory in the USA of the Order of St. John. She has served on the Steering Committee of the Sight Savers America’s Hall W. Thompson Hero for Sight Award event since its inception.
She is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham and is a past member of the Birmingham Women’s Committee of 100, the American Heart Association (AHA) Circle of Red and the Junior League of Birmingham. Ms. DeKeyser also has been involved in the YWCA Purse & Passion program, the VOICES for Alabama’s Children Board of Directors, the Birmingham Women’s Network and the United Way of Central Alabama as a Loaned Executive.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR
Ann H. Milam, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Dept Ophthalmology at University of Washington; Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute at University of Pennsylvania