The Corinne Kirchner Research Award honors individuals whose timely, innovative, and authoritative research advances understanding and champions impactful policies and practices for and by people who are blind or have low vision.
The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), an organization dedicated to conducting research to advance knowledge and promote understanding, established the Corinne Kirchner Research Award in 2007 to honor the organization's longtime staff member, Corinne Kirchner, Ph.D. Dr. Kirchner’s groundbreaking research set the benchmark against which much of the subsequent research in blindness and low vision has been compared. Her tireless pursuit of excellence in research-led AFB and the field at large to a higher level of expectation concerning the investigation of demographic data, analysis of outcomes in program and service delivery, and scientific examination of socio-ecological trends in the population of people who are blind or have low vision.
Past recipients of the Corinne Kirchner Research Award include Dr. Kirchner herself (2007) and:
- José-Alain Sahel, M.D., Chair of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (2023)
- Rona Pogrund, Ph.D., TSVI, COMS; Shannon Darst, Ph.D., TSVI, COMS; and Michael Munro, Ph.D., TSVI; whose work culminated in the Visual Impairment Scale of Service Intensity of Texas (2022)
- Institute of Movement Studies for Individuals with Visual Impairments (IMSVI), SUNY Brockport (2020)
- Michele C. McDonnall, Ph.D. (2019)
- Envision Research Institute (2018)
- John E. Crews, D.P.A. (2015)
- Jane N. Erin, Ph.D. (2014)
- Duane R. Geruschat, Ph.D. (2012)
- Kay Alicyn Ferrell, Ph.D. (2009)
For more information, please contact:
Rebecca Burrichter, Senior Editor–JVIB
jvib@afb.net
