Baillie Russell Brown: Director of Programs, Sight Surgery International

Sight Surgery International, a nonprofit charitable organization that organizes and implements sight-restoring surgery clinics throughout the developing world, serves populations where cataract-related blindness is a scourge. Baillie Russell Brown of Santa Barbara is the organization's director of programs.

Brown works as an assistant in ophthalmic surgery and has more than 40 years of experience. She is in charge of gathering, organizing, and deploying teams of ophthalmologists in more than 60 nations. She has persuaded pharmaceutical and medical equipment firms to donate hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of necessary equipment so that Sight Surgery International can perform free sight-restoring surgeries on the poor throughout the United States and the developing world. Teams of volunteer ophthalmologists, nurses, and technicians are assembled by Sight Surgery International to perform the procedures, with each volunteer covering his or her own expenses in exchange for donating their expertise. Since the organization's inception, ophthalmologic staff members have treated countless patients who would have remained blind or visually impaired with extensive eye exams and surgeries.

Brown worked as an optician for Direct Relief International before joining Sight Surgery International. She served as the CEO of Surgical Eye Expeditions, a charity that performs cataract surgery on underprivileged people all over the world, for more than 20 years. The organization tied for first place in Forbes' list of the best-run charities in America during her final year.

The Braille Institute and numerous health fairs are just a few of the community organizations for which Brown has volunteered. She has personally taken part in over 70 clinics in more than 40 nations, including Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Borneo, Brazil, Guyana, Mongolia, and Papua New Guinea.

Among her many accolades, Brown was named Outstanding Young Assembly in 1985, listed in Who's Who in Top Executive Management in 1996, and honored as the Soroptimist Woman of Distinction for International Goodwill and Understanding in 1988. She was recently named a Professional of the Year for 2021 by Strathmore's Who's Who Worldwide and a Woman of Distinction for summer 2022 by P.O.W.E.R. (Professional Organization of Women of Excellence Recognized).

Baillie, who was born in Olympia, Washington, on September 29, 1953, earned a B.S. in philosophy from St. Martin's University. She holds certificates in both operating room protocol and ophthalmology. The California Association of Ophthalmology counts her as a member.

In her spare time, Baillie enjoys riding horses, playing piano, and exercising on the elliptical machine. For further information, please contact www.sightsurgeryinternational.com.