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Lisandro Sakata

Almost 16 years ago, I was invited to participate at the WGA Consensus on Angle Closure Glaucoma.As a young glaucoma fellow at University of Alabama at Birmingham with Prof. Chris Girkin (and previously at the University of Sao Paulo with Prof. Remo Susanna and colleagues), this first opportunity to collaborate with the greatest glaucoma experts in this field to create such important educational material was an amazing experience. A couple of years later, just after finishing my last glaucoma fellowship at the Singapore Eye Research Institute with Prof. Tin Aung, I joined the Associate Advisory Board, together with a group of great young clinician scientists eager to work for the WGA. And for the past decade, I had the privilege to collaborate in many WGA projects, serving the Education and Nomination Committee; WGC Program Planning Committee in 2015 (Hong Kong), 2017 (Helsinki), and 2023 (Rome); at the Board of Governors; and as co-chair of Patient Committee and Communication and Technology Committee. It is indeed stimulating to note how WGA is continuously evolving: producing high-quality educational material, improving its resources accessibility and communication methods, as well as tackling challenging /inspiring missions such as to better glaucoma care in areas of need, and working to provide reliable, unbiased, easy to understand information for glaucoma patients. Of course, all these represent a continuation of amazing work from previous members and running so many activities is only possible due to the teamwork of outstanding colleagues, industry members, and specially the WGA executive office (Mariska, and now Irene, Marije and so many others ‒ Simon Bakker as well) ‒ all of them truly committed to contribute for a better life for our patients worldwide. Currently, I am Professor of Ophthalmology and Head of Glaucoma Service at the Universidade Federal do Parana, Brazil; also serving other Regional Glaucoma/ Ophthalmological societies; happily married and father of two young sons ‒ Lucas (12) and Leo (9). And I am quite confident (and proud) to balance my time with an association like WGA ‒ for all it stands for, and the great people involved.