CONTACT: Tony Stephens, Director of Communications 212.502.7627 | tstephens@afb.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 16, 2024) — After nine years at the helm of AFB’s Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), Sandra Lewis, Ed.D., Florida State University (retired), has expressed her intention to step away from her duties as the journal’s editor in chief. Robert Wall Emerson, Ph.D., Western Michigan University, the journal’s research editor since 2012, will step into the role in July 2024.
“For over nine years, Dr. Lewis has served as a steady presence for the many people who interact with JVIB, and we thank her for her years of service to AFB and the field,” said AFB CEO Eric Bridges. “The hallmark of Dr. Lewis’s tenure as editor-in-chief of the journal has been the warmth and dignity in her interactions with the journal’s editors, reviewers, and authors. Her steady leadership, including through moments of uncertainty, her ability to make difficult decisions, and her capacity as an editor has helped shape the literature of the field in countless, meaningful ways that will never be forgotten.”
As editor-in-chief, Dr. Lewis oversaw the transition of the journal’s submission and peer review procedures from an in-house operation to a more efficient, web-based system that shortened the processing time for acceptance decisions. Dr. Lewis also welcomed the continued commitment to JVIB by AFB’s Board of Trustees, which culminated in their successful search for sustaining funding for the journal through a generous gift by the Marilyn and Francine Gruder trust.
With a background in the education of students with visual impairments, in 1993, Dr. Lewis completed her doctoral program in special education: visual impairment at the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University, under the supervision of Philip Hatlen. That same year, she began working as assistant professor and coordinator for the Program in Visual Disabilities, Department of Special Education, Florida State University (FSU). She became a full professor in 2010 and retired from FSU in 2021. Despite her busy schedule, Dr. Lewis graciously accepted the role of editor-in-chief of JVIB in 2015. Prior to accepting that role, Dr. Lewis served as chair of the journal’s Editorial Advisory Board, from 2014 to 2015, and she first became a board member in 2006.
In addition to mentoring the journal's authors and her own students, as well as overseeing the publication of countless journal articles, Dr. Lewis authored and edited textbooks, including ECC Essentials: Teaching the expanded core curriculum to students with visual impairments, which she co-edited with Carol Allman in 2014; published journal articles; and contributed numerous book chapters and conference presentations over the course of her distinguished career.
Dr. Lewis has been recognized by her peers for her important contributions to the field of visual impairment, with the 2023 Alan J. Koenig Research in Literacy Award, which she received at the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference; the 2018 Distinguished Service Award, bestowed by the Division on Visual Impairments and Deafblindness, Council for Exceptional Children; the 2014 University Undergraduate Teaching Award, given by FSU; and the 2010 Mary K. Bauman Award, for significant and outstanding contributions in education, given by the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).
In retirement, Dr. Lewis will enjoy her new life at Latitude Margaritaville in Daytona Beach, Florida, with her husband, Paul, and their dog, Benny. They have five grown children and ten grandchildren.
After many years working as an orientation and mobility instructor and vision teacher, in 1999, Dr. Wall Emerson earned his doctoral degree in education and human development, with a specialization in orientation and mobility, from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. From 2000 to 2004, he held the position of research assistant professor at Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, Vanderbilt University. In 2004, he moved to Western Michigan University, where he currently works as a professor in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies.
As a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) and a teacher of students with visual impairments, Dr. Wall Emerson has conducted blindness-related research for over 25 years. His areas of interest include accessibility of roundabouts and channelized right-turn lanes, traffic gap perception and decision to cross, accessible pedestrian signals, acoustics in blind navigation, assistive technology for navigation, availability of braille transcribers, biomechanics of long cane use, braille literacy, braille production methodology and systems, cortical visual impairment, description of mathematics images for students who are blind, the effect of hybrid or quiet vehicles on performing orientation and mobility tasks, the effect of slope on veering, surface guidance materials for people who are blind, and technology for description of visual media for students with visual impairments. He has published over 85 peer-reviewed articles and nine book chapters, and he is an editor for the fourth edition of the Foundations of O&M textbook. Notably, two of his Statistical Sidebar contributions are among the most downloaded items published in the pages of JVIB.
“For the past 12 years, in his role as research editor, Dr. Wall Emerson has evaluated and critiqued the methodology of every research article submitted to JVIB. Taken together with his vast areas of expertise, Dr. Wall Emerson is the natural choice to succeed Dr. Lewis as editor in chief of the journal. All of us at AFB look forward to working with Rob as he takes the reins and steers the journal into the future,” Bridges added.
Dr. Wall Emerson is originally from Canada but has been in the United States since 1994. He counts himself lucky to have Catherine as his wife and partner, learning from her work as a COMS and as a new clinical social worker, as well as having her as a wise sounding board. They live in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with their daughter, Paisley, son, Alex, and two dogs, Nutmeg and Toffee.
Founded in 1921, the American Foundation for the Blind creates equal opportunities and expands possibilities for people who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision through advocacy, thought leadership, and strategic partnerships. In addition to publishing the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), AFB is also the proud steward of the Helen Keller Archive, which is available on the AFB website at www.afb.org.
