My name is Beeshernah Ceus, I am Accessible Pharmacy’s summer intern. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dawn Prall. Dawn wears many incredible hats. She is the Creator of My MacD Life Podcast, the Founder and Executive Director of the Support Sight Foundation, and the Owner, President, and CEO of Sage Vision. To read our conversation and learn more about Dawn:
Beeshernah: It's a pleasure to have you and learn about what you do in the low vision community. My name is Beeshernah. Can you please introduce yourself and your titles?
Dawn: It’s wonderful to meet you Beeshernah and I am honored to be here. It's a privilege. My name is Dawn Prall. I’m the Creator of My MacD Life Podcast, The Founder and Executive Director of the Support Sight Foundation. I am also the Owner, President, and CEO of Sage Vision
Beeshernah: Those are impressive titles. What are the missions and values of Sage Vision?
Dawn: Sage Vision is the premier Pennsylvania dealer for low vision technology and devices. Our company is in the low vision and blindness assistive technology industry. Our mission is to help people who cannot see at whatever age, either acquired or from birth to help you figure out what assistive technology devices will help you lead an independent life despite your vision loss and learning how to live life with low vision.
Beeshernah: Wow, that’s amazing. How many people do you employ?
Dawn: We are a small business and currently employ five staff members.
Beeshernah: That’s a great number of staff members and everyone is doing a wonderful job at providing these devices to a wide range of consumers. What makes you proud to be a part of this company?
Dawn: There is a lot to be proud of. I believe a leader’s leadership success encompasses and emanates from their core. What emanates from my core every day is having the ability to help others live life with vision loss. I am so inspired by the people that we come into contact with to help them figure out what works for them. Vision loss is something that is precious that we can all relate to. So to be part of their life where we fit in. Sage Vision fills a gap that nobody else fills. The eye doctor is in charge of the health of someone’s eye making them in charge of the medical side. We are in charge of helping people once they’re diagnosed with the eye disease or they have vision issues, we fill in where to help them live their everyday life with it. That's significant and it’s what I’m most proud of.
Beeshernah: That’s very touching and you along with other members of the company are doing an amazing job making such an impact in these patients' lives. What resources does Sage Vision provide?
Dawn: Our exceptional website https://sagevisiontech.com/ is our best resource for our customers.. Our website lists the variety of products that were created for the location community. We have products that are low tech meaning they are the entry point. They are electric portable, electronics, and smaller. You don’t start small and get bigger necessarily but that’s a good place to start if someone has never used assistive technology products. We also have hands-free wearables that are artificial intelligence placed on the head and everything in between.
Beeshernah: It’s great to see that the company provides a variety of products starting from simple to more complex devices. You are the Founder and Executive Director of Support Sight Foundation, what is the company‘s mission and values?
Dawn: The Support Sight Foundation focuses on research for macular degeneration. We are a 501(c)(3) charity national footprint in our mission as a nonprofit is to save sight for millions of people. We are laser focused on macular degeneration only. We help with patient education, advocacy, and help to empower the voices of the 20,000,000 plus people who have AMD. We advocate on their behalf in public policy and in many other ways. The third part of this nonprofit is research. I believe that research makes medicine and macular degeneration curable. There are already treatments out there with wet MacD. There is no doubt that a cure will be discovered for it. We help to fuel the research in a very targeted and specific way. The donations, funds, and grants that we secure funds those three areas.
Beeshernah: I also have no doubt that a cure will be found and it’s great to know that your nonprofit is a part of that journey. Aside from research does the company provide any services?
Dawn: The Support Sight Foundation (TSSF) is not a direct service organization. We provide resources such as education seminars, My MacD Life podcast award-winning podcast that’s available on streaming websites and also on https://mymacdlife.org/ which is a huge part of our patient education.
Beeshernah: What is your education background?
Dawn: I have a bachelors in international marketing, French, and economics. I have my MBA.
Beeshernah: That’s wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions about Sage Vision and The Support Sight Foundation. It was a pleasure speaking with you!
Dawn: It was a pleasure speaking to you about what I and my companies do. Thank you for a great interview experience!
To learn more about Support Sight Foundation: https://www.supportsight.org/
To learn more about Sage Vision: https://sagevisiontech.com/
To learn more about MyMacDLife: https://mymacdlife.org/