Women in Eye and Vision Research (WEAVR)

Women in Eye and Vision Research (WEAVR) is an initiative of the ARVO Foundation to further develop and strengthen women who are pursuing careers in the visual sciences. WEAVR supports and promotes networking, career development, and access to research opportunities for female vision scientists. WEAVR raises philanthropic dollars to support the ARVO Foundation through its annual WEAVR Luncheon.

The WEAVR Leadership Committee provides strategic direction for WEAVR’s fundraising activities and leads WEAVR’s initiatives for networking and career development for women.

Upcoming WEAVR initiatives include:

Building drugs, devices and novel therapeutics
Free webinar: July 21 | 10 - 11:15am ET
Hosted by Women in Eye and Vision Research (WEAVR)

This webinar will provide an exploration of topics relating to development of ophthalmic therapies, with applications of conventional drugs or devices, and novel biologic therapeutics. Discussion of each panelist’s career journey, challenges and successes will give the audience a better understanding and appreciation of the scientific and regulatory process, and also provide insight for young scientists interested in a career in translational research or drug/device development. Attendees of this webinar will:

• Gain a better understanding of the drug/device/biologic development, including drug delivery, and clinical and regulatory process
• Learn about academic and non-academic career choices
• Learn from women who have had diverse careers in the vision sciences (as entrepreneurs or clinician-scientists in industry, academics or government) about the important career decisions they made to excel in their respective endeavors.

A Certificate of Attendance will be available to all attendees.
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Recent WEAVR initiatives include:

12th Annual WEAVR Event
May 3

Keynote speaker: Katherine High, MD
"Merging Discovery and Entrepreneurship in the Field of Gene Therapy"
Professor Emerita, Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania 
President, Therapeutics, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical
Co-founder and former president and head of R&D, Spark Therapeutics
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2021 WEAVR Drop-in Mentoring Program
May 1 - 7

Mid- and senior-level female ARVO members were available at designated times during the 2021 Annual Meeting  for confidential, one-on-one mentoring sessions of 15-30 minutes to provide guidance and career advice from a female perspective.
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