Photo caption: Miracles in Sight Division Director Ryan Cady working in the lab in Lubbock.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (April 2, 2025)– Miracles In Sight (MIS), one of the largest nonprofit eye banks in the world, is establishing a new location in Lubbock, Texas, to serve the 48 counties in the Lubbock and Amarillo areas.
After 51 years, Great Plains Lions Eye Bank will transition its operations to MIS to continue the mission of serving the community by restoring sight and improving the quality of life for individuals through eye donation and transplantation.
MIS has been dedicated to serving central Texas since 2020 through its partnership with the Lone Star Lions Eye Bank in Austin. Now, with its first location in the Panhandle, MIS is expanding its reach to better serve the community, donors, and recipients. Building on the legacy of the Lions, MIS will provide comprehensive education on donation and transplantation while expanding ocular services for surgeons and hospitals in the region.
Based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, MIS also has offices in South Carolina and serves most of North and South Carolina, in addition to Central Texas and helps restore sight for approximately 3,800 patients each year.
“We are always looking for opportunities to reach more people with our services and look forward to working with the local west Texas community,” said Ingrid Schunder, President and CEO of MIS. “MIS was founded in 1951 and has grown from a local eye bank into one of the largest and most respected organizations in the industry both in the United States and across the world. We are honored to expand our services in Texas.”
MIS works with hospitals, hospices and other facilities to recover corneal tissue from those who have chosen to donate organs, tissues and eyes upon their passing. MIS clinicians prepare and store the corneal tissue and work with ophthalmologists to transport the tissue, allowing their patients the opportunity to receive the gift of sight through cornea transplantation.
Ryan Cady, who has spent over 30 years working with eye banks, has been named division director for the MIS location in Lubbock. Cady is a certified eye bank technician and actively serves on the accreditation board for the Eye Bank Association of America.
MIS offers a wide range of services, including research and collaboration with innovation partners to advance corneal transplant procedures. Additionally, MIS is committed to professional development, working closely with nurses, physicians, and medical professionals to ensure they are well-informed about eye donation and best practices in the field. Through these efforts, MIS continues to drive progress in vision restoration and enhance the impact of eye donation on a global scale.
For more information about Miracles In Sight visit, miraclesinsight.org, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
ABOUT MIRACLES IN SIGHT: The Mission of Miracles In Sight is to support the restoration, preservation, and enhancement of sight through transplant, research, education, and innovation. Headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., MIS was founded in 1951 as the Eye Bank For Restoring Sight and later became the North Carolina Eye Bank before becoming MIS in 2014. Providing patients with the best tissue, in quality and selection, for transplant by leading ophthalmologists is accomplished by MIS through a state-of-the-art process. For more information, visit miraclesinsight.org, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.