The Vanderbilt Eye Institute (VEI) Advisory Board celebrated the transition of its leadership to new Chair John Gass on July 1. Gass took over the position from Liz Potocsnak.
Potocsnak, whose term began in 2022, will continue to serve on the Advisory Board as a member. Gass was a founding member of the Advisory Board upon its creation in 2006.
The VEI Advisory Board educates the community and raises funds for VEI’s highest priorities. In addition to contributing to the endowment of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, the Advisory Board supports faculty trainees and annually awards a discovery grant.
Over the last two decades, VEI has grown from 15 to 79 faculty members, received over 10,000 residency applications and has grown its National Institutes of Health funding more than tenfold. In 2025, VEI had 192,000 patient visits and received a sixth-place ranking from the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research rankings, recognized as an indicator of scientific vitality and research productivity.
Gass’ ties to Vanderbilt Health include his time as an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University: He and his wife, Jane Ann Gass, were graduates of the class of 1974. His father, J. Donald M. Gass, MD, was a Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and one of the world’s most respected experts on diseases of the retina, macula and uvea.
The Gass family’s philanthropic support to establish the J. Donald M. Gass Fellowship in Ophthalmology to this day supports at least one Gass Fellow each year. In 2014, the family established the Margy Ann and J. Donald M. Gass Chair in Ophthalmology.
John and Jane Ann Gass have also been longtime supporters of the VEI Advisory Board Discovery Grant, and in 2025 they established the first-of-its-kind Gass Family Career Development Award to support faculty career and leadership development at VEI.
“John Gass is a founding member of the Advisory Board and has had a long-standing impact on VEI,” said David Wallace, MD, MPH, George Weeks Hale Professor of Ophthalmology, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Director of the Vanderbilt Eye Institute. “We appreciate his willingness to assume the role of Chair, and we are looking forward to continued success and impact under his guidance.”
Potocsnak’s family connections to Vanderbilt Health continue to inform her desire to serve in an advisory capacity to VEI. Her first-hand experience in 2011, when a family member had a serious eye condition requiring surgery, inspired her to become more involved. She joined the VEI Advisory Board in 2013.
In the spirit of her father, John Potocsnak, who inspires the family’s ethos of “helping people who help people,” the family has made a tremendous impact on health care. This has included support of vision research and leaders at VEI over the years, plus creating the Potocsnak Center for Undiagnosed and Rare Disorders, to provide hope and find answers for families.
“Liz Potocsnak’s strong leadership and tremendous contributions have helped us drive our mission of discovery and innovation forward,” Wallace said. “We are grateful for her service as Chair and her continued membership on the Advisory Board.”
