Draper Richards Foundation

VisionSpring (Formerly Scojo Foundation)
Jordan Kassalow
Fellowship Awarded 2005

In 1999, Jordan co-founded Scojo Vision LLC, a leading designer and distributor of high-end reading glasses and accessories in the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan. A year later, he and his partner designated 5% of the company's profits to fund VisionSpring (at the time called Scojo Foundation), a social enterprise that trains entrepreneurs in developing countries to give eye screenings and sell low-cost reading glasses in their communities. His innovative model allows thousands of people in developing countries the gift of sight so they can continue working and contributing to their communities. In turn, VisionSpring provides entrepreneurial opportunities for the people who distribute and sell the reading glasses in countries like India, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Jordan is also a practicing optometrist and senior partner at Drs. Farkas, Kassalow, Resnick, PC. Prior to founding VisionSpring, he created the Global Health Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, where for five years he served as an Adjunct Senior Fellow. He also served for eight years as the Director of Onchocerciasis, River Blindness Control at Helen Keller International. Jordan is a member of the 2005 Class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute. He serves on the board of Lighthouse International, on the medical advisory board of Helen Keller International, and is a lifetime member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Please learn more about VisionSpring at www.visionspring.org.

We don't know who we are until we see what we can do--Martha Grimes