A Legacy of Giving

In 1963, Alston Callahan, M.D., founded the Eye Foundation Hospital, now known as Callahan Eye Hospital, the first facility in Alabama dedicated to the care and the treatment of the eye. The hospital was not built with a standard loan, but through philanthropic giving. Dr. Callahan was able to raise all funds needed to build the hospital through grateful patients and other charitable giving.

UAB Ophthalmology is a nationally ranked department, and Callahan Eye Hospital is the only freestanding Level One Ocular Trauma Center in the country that serves the greater Birmingham community with satellite clinic locations. Together, this team is committed to excellence with focus on curing blinding diseases in Birmingham and beyond. Our tripartite mission of offering outstanding patient care, comprehensive training for the next generation of ophthalmologists, and performing groundbreaking discoveries. Today, philanthropic generosity continues to be crucial in helping us achieve our mission. Thank you for joining us on this journey.  

Giving Priorities

1. Faculty Support

• Funds to assist with recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty
• Endowed chairs and professorships for faculty
• Funds for emerging priorities to be used at the discretion of the department chair

2. Research and Innovation

• Support medical discoveries, interdisciplinary research, and technological advances
• Purchase of critical laboratory equipment
• Research funding, such as pilot grants for junior faculty and bridge funding for faculty investigators

3. Facilities Enhancement

• Improving our building and clinical spaces, as well as satellite clinics
• Transformational naming opportunities within the hospital building

4. Education

• Funds for residents to attend professional and scientific conferences
• Endowments to support fellowships
• Funding in support of emerging priorities at the discretion of the residency program director

5. Programs

• Funds to support the UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation
• Support/activity groups:
  • Connections Support Group for adults with vision impairments
  • Songs for Sight for children and young people with low vision, vision impairments

How to Give

1. Give Online: Click here to make an online gift

2. Give by Mail

Please make checks out to either:

• UAB Ophthalmology
  
  • (if gift is for the UAB Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences)
• Eye Foundation Inc.
  
  • (if gift is for Callahan Eye Hospital)

If there is a specific gift area of support, please indicate on the check memo line.

Checks should be mailed to:

UAB Gift Records AB 1320
1720 2nd Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-0112

Other Ways to Give

Planned gifts, memorial gifts, endowments, matching gifts, gifts of stock, and donor advised funds are generally accepted.

For help or questions, please contact:

Kristy Henry, MBA
Director of Development, Heersink School of Medicine
kristyrhenry@uabmc.edu
(205) 934-2499