Hannah Faal

Professor Faal is a distinguished ophthalmologist whose career began in Nigeria and The Gambia. Her remit of activities expanded in 1986 with the conceptualization of the National Comprehensive Eye Care Programme in The Gambia that saw a reduction in blindness prevalence from 0.7% to 0.4% in a decade. The experiences gained influenced Hannah’s work with WHO, International Centre for Eye Health and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) which focused on strategies for eye care programming, task shifting with emphasis on community-based initiatives. In addition, as eye care programme advisor to Sightsavers for over 20 years, Hannah was involved in projects in over 30+ countries.

Within global eye health, she took on leadership roles as founder member of the Vision 2020 initiative and president of the IAPB (1999–2004). She has over 90 publications in peer reviewed journals. Hannah remains active in her retirement in eye health as an adjunct professor in International eye health in Nigeria; trustee of the boards of Vision Action, Moorfields Korle-Bu Trust; completed membership of Scientific Advisory Board of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust; Global Advisory Board of Our Children’s Vision and chair of the board of the Africa Research Vision Institute.