When Megan Webber, Co-Founder of KnowTheGlow, met Dr. Jeff Levenson at the Ophthalmology Global Summit in Chicago, she was struck by his energy and devotion to their shared mission of ending needless blindness. A follow-up call with Jeff and KnowTheGlow’s Director of Global Outreach, Helene Dameris, revealed the scope of his work and the personal journey that drives him.
Jeff is the Chief Medical Officer of SEE International, a global nonprofit dedicated to reducing the burden of avoidable blindness. He often shares a simple but powerful belief: “Half of the world’s blindness is treatable and preventable at a material cost of as little as…for as little as twenty five dollars”. For the nearly two billion people living on less than five dollars a day, cataracts are not just an inconvenience but can be a death sentence, cutting people off from independence, family, and livelihood.
Jeff knows the life-changing power of cataract surgery firsthand. At 51, he was diagnosed with cataracts and struggled to choose a surgeon among his many colleagues and friends. The results were transformative. The world came back into focus, and he realized how catastrophic untreated cataracts must be for those without access to care. That moment set him on a path that has defined the last fifteen years of his life. He felt a desire to pursue pathways that would allow him to perform cataract surgery on those needing it most around the world. He often calls the work he does through cataract surgery the purest distillation of his best self.
His commitment led him to master Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS), a technique widely used in countries where advanced technology like phacoemulsification is out of reach. Inspired by Dr. Sanduk Ruit, who re-engineered the procedure to make it accessible, Jeff began initially teaching himself by watching YouTube videos before traveling to Honduras to learn how to master the procedure from Dr. Diego Mejia at “Camp Diego,” a training center that has been operating for more than fifteen years. Today, he still travels two to three times a year, performing as many as 500 cataract surgeries per week alongside host doctors across Central and South America, and he was preparing for another trip to the Philippines just days after his conversation with Megan and Helene.
- Through SEE International, Jeff helps train local doctors in MSICS and expand capacity in their own communities. The organization provides equipment, materials, and education, magnifying the reach of every mission trip. In Jacksonville, Florida, where Jeff lives, he also leads Vision Is Priceless, which screens up to 45,000 preschoolers each year and runs the waste pit Gift of Sight program, offering free cataract surgeries to uninsured patients. He is passionate about showing that blindness is not just an international issue, since millions of uninsured Americans remain without access to sight-restoring care.
His humanitarian impact is felt not only in the numbers but in the stories. Jeff recalled the work of Helena Ndema in Namibia, a former fellow of Dr. Jesse Berry, who through long-term sponsorship has nearly eliminated unnecessary blindness in her country. Her story is captured in the documentary A Chance to See Again, a powerful reminder of how sustainable support transforms lives.
Jeff’s mission reached an entirely new audience when Mr. Beast, the YouTube creator with more than 100 million followers, contacted him after seeing one of his TED Talks. Within three weeks, Jeff coordinated 1,000 cataract surgeries worldwide, including 40 in Jacksonville for homeless and uninsured patients. The resulting video went viral, reaching more than 200 million viewers and becoming one of the most widely seen public awareness campaigns about cataracts in history. It reshaped global perceptions about cataract surgery, showing that restoring sight can be simple, cost-effective, and profoundly life-changing.
His passion for medicine is intertwined with his personal life. He and his wife, Ilene, also a physician, grew up together in New York, fell in love as college students during a backpacking trip in Europe, and later attended medical school side by side. When Ilene chose internal medicine, Jeff leaned toward ophthalmology—partly, as he jokes, because someone needed to be home in time to cook dinner for their future children.
When asked why he continues, Jeff answers with humility and conviction. “Vision is priceless,” he says. He sees cataracts as one of the easy answers and feels we should be able to build the capacity to treat them everywhere. He admits that while his wife, an internal medicine doctor, sees impact in the slow prevention of chronic disease, he has the gift of witnessing lives change in an instant.
For Megan and Helene, the conversation with Jeff was a reminder of how powerful vision restoration can be and how important storytelling is in building an “army of supporters.” Jeff often points back to his own journey—growing up alongside Ilene, discovering his calling in ophthalmology, and experiencing the gift of restored vision himself—as the compass that guides his work. As he prepares for another TED Talk in January, his message remains clear: restoring sight is not just about medicine. It is about restoring dignity, opportunity, and hope to millions who have been left in the dark.
