Giving to Gavin Herbert Eye Institute

Eye Mobile for Children

To support the Eye Mobile for Children’s mission to deliver effective, efficient, high-quality vision care services to the children of Orange County. The UCI Eye Mobile for Children, a 33-foot state-of-the-art pediatric mobile eye clinic, travels to public schools, Head Start prgrams and community centers to care for children in underserved communities who lack access to comprehensive vision care. The Eye Mobile ensures that all children, regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status, have the best vision to succeed in school.

Champions for Discovery Eye Research

To support for the Discovery Centers for Eye Research – National Keratoconus and Macular Degeneration Partnership. The Discovery Center for Eye Research (DCER) at the UCI Gavin Herbert Eye Institute was established in 2013 to accelerate novel research investigations aimed at discovering and developing new therapies for patients with complex eye diseases. Among other patient-oriented research programs at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, DCER has supported groundbreaking research for retinal and corneal diseases, such as a stem cell treatment for age-related macular degeneration. Thanks to the outcomes of our DCER investigations at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, our physician-scientists are more informed than ever to identify the causes and propose potential treatments and cures for macular degeneration, keratoconus and other sight-threatening diseases.

Gavin Herbert Eye Institute 20/20 Society

An annual giving society supporting research at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute. Crucial to our mission of advancing vision-saving research is support of our 20/20 Society, a group of visionary friends, including patients, faculty, staff, and community members, who are passionately committed to supporting research that leads to sight-saving advances in vision treatment with the ultimate goal of eradicating preventable blindness entirely.  Funding from the 20/20 Society provides pilot grants to enable our researchers to test new scientific inquiries and advance understanding of complex eye disease.

• Friends in Vision $5,000 and up
• Friends in Healing $2,500 - $4,999
• Friends in Care $500 - $999
• Friends in Mission $100 - $499

Leopold Endowed Chair

To provide support for an endowed chair in ophthalmology research. The current chairholder is world-renowned vision scientist, Kris Palczewski, PhD. Like all gifts that benefit UCI, support of an endowed fund contributes to high quality research and ensures a dependable, perpetual source of funding.