Dr. Paul B. Freeman is an optometrist who graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia in 1974. Dr. Freeman is presently the head of low vision rehabilitation services at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and provides low vision rehabilitation services at Keystone Blind Association in Sharon, Pennsylvania and Beaver County Association for the Blind in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He provides rehabilitative care for individuals of all ages, including those suffering from the visual consequences of acquired brain injury. In addition he is the optometric consultant to the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, and is involved in vision programs throughout western Pennsylvania’s school districts. Dr. Freeman has been an investigator in a number of vision research projects to determine the efficacy of sophisticated low vision devices, to assess the psychological implications of low vision, and to explore the relationship of vision and the learning process. Dr. Freeman lectures both nationally and internationally and was a Distinguished Clinical Practitioner at the University of Houston, College of Optometry, from 2000 to 2001. Dr. Freeman was part of AARP’s Webinar: Keep Your Safety in Sight, Prepare for the Effects of Aging Vision on Driving, presented for the AARP Driver Safety Program, May 2011,Washington, DC, and was also involved in AARP Smart Driver training videos, AARP Driver Safety, November 2012, Alexandria, VA. He has authored numerous articles, and served as the editor of Optometry, Journal of the American Optometric Association from February, 1999 to June 2012. Dr. Freeman is presently co-editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier eye care portal PracticeUpdate. He co-authored the book “The Art and Practice of Low Vision,” and wrote “Believing is Seeing.”

Dr. Freeman is a low vision diplomate in the American Academy of Optometry (1 of only 2 in western Pennsylvania), and was chair of the diplomate program and Low Vision Section of the AAO from 1989-1992. As one of the founders of the American Optometric Association’s Low Vision Section, he served as its chairperson from 1987-1989. Dr. Freeman has received numerous awards, including the Golden Triangle Radio Information Center Award, for working with the visually impaired (1985), the Pennsylvania Council for the Blind’s Distinguished Service Award (1996), the State University of New York, College of Optometry’s William Feinbloom Award (1997), the Pittsburgh Business Times’ Healthcare Hero Award: Physician of the Year (1997), the American Optometric Association Low Vision Section’s Vision Care Award (1999), Pennsylvania Council of the Blind Honorary Service Award 2010, The COVD Distinguished Service Award in 2011, and the Merit Award from the Pennsylvania Optometric Association in 2012. Dr. Freeman has consulted with many private care practitioners in establishing successful low vision services both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Freeman has dedicated his professional career to evaluating and managing visually impaired individuals of all ages with a variety of conditions including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, inoperable cataract, traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, peripheral vision loss, cortical visual impairment, albinism, retinitis pigmentosa, optic nerve dysfunctions, and achromatopsia, stroke, rod cone dystrophy, cone rod dystrophy, toxoplasmosis, histoplasmosis, retinopathy of prematurity.