A Golden Opportunity For Eyecare Accessibility

Rebecca Chown ’98, OD ’03 didn’t need to wait for data to start helping underserved communities in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge access the vision care they needed.

Questions about vision care needs haven’t been gauged in community health assessments conducted by counties in the Gorge until recently. But Chown, who owned and operated an optometric practice in Hood River for eight years, saw the need first-hand.

“The problem is that we just don’t know how extensive the need is,” said Chown, who founded the nonprofit Envision Eyecare for All in March 2023 to serve the Gorge’s underserved communities. “Part of our advocacy is to work with the Columbia Gorge Health Council to get those questions on the assessment. We need to know what those statistics are.”

Envision’s mission and impact were recognized in June 2024 by Optometry Cares – The American Optometric Association Foundation, which awarded Chown one of the foundation’s first three Golden Opportunity Awards.

The $50,000 grant supports optometrists who exemplify dedication to their profession and commitment to serving underrepresented and underserved communities. The award will aid operational expenses for Envision as it looks to expand the services it provides across three rural Oregon counties and raise funds towards the organization’s goal of purchasing a mobile vision clinic.

Chown, a two-time alumna of Pacific University, has based Envision’s service model on the Pacific University College of Optometry’s community outreach program and its EyeVan, which serves thousands of children and adult patients across over 100 annual screening events. She thinks of Envision’s work as an eastern extension of what her alma mater provides to underserved communities in the Willamette Valley. She also hopes to provide opportunities for students interested in public health optometry in the future.

“Pacific has a pretty small radius in which they can serve because of students who really can’t drive outside of a one-hour radius from the school,” Chown said. “I wondered if we had more vans across Oregon, could we do something similar to serve those needs?”

Even without a van, Envision is providing more accessibility to vision care. The organization partners with school-based health centers at Hood River Valley and Dufur high schools to provide vision screenings for all students. Those who need additional care are then able to receive comprehensive eye exams and glasses from Chown at the school-based health center free of charge.

Thanks to a grant from Gilliam County, the program will expand to students in the communities of Arlington and Condon this fall and will also serve adult patients at the county’s Rural Health Center.

Envision is also working with the area’s large migrant and seasonal farm-worker population, which can include upwards of 12,000 people each season in Hood River County. The program focuses primarily on education on eye diseases and eye protection and is supplemented by giveaways of safety glasses and eyedrops.

“We talk more about ocular surface diseases and how to take care of eyes in the kind of extreme environments farm workers are in,” Chown said. “With all of the wildfire smoke that comes through and with the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, prevention is key.”

As for those eyecare statistics, Chown and Envision were successful in convincing the Columbia Gorge Health Council to add vision questions to their surveys. She hopes that the data will help the organization document the need and move forward in providing additional care to Gorge communities.

In the meantime, Chown continues to raise funds to aid in the purchase of a mobile eyecare van. She has received grants towards the effort from Key Bank, the Office of Rural Health and the Roundhouse Foundation but still stands well short of Envision’s $250,000 funding goal.

Once they hit that milestone, the ability for the organization to fulfill its mission is infinite.

“We do pop-up clinics, but to have everything self-contained, especially when you are working with populations that are more in the elements, makes it easier,” Chown said. “In an orchard, there is not really a place to set up a pop-up clinic. We know that in order to really provide the care and access to these populations, having the vehicle is a key component.”

To donate to Envision Eyecare for All and its purchase of a mobile eyecare van, visit their website.