2023 Parks Silver Medalist
Bradley C. Black, MD
Bradley Charles Black was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1947 and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and received his MD from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco, California, followed by pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus fellowships at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco with Drs. Art Jampolsky and Alan Scott and at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, with Drs. Gene Helveston and Daryel Ellis. Brad is forever grateful to those four mentors, role models, and wonderful friends.
After his training, Brad spent three years at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Following ten years in the US Army Medical Corps, he returned to Baton Rouge as the first pediatric ophthalmology subspecialist in the region, founded the Pediatric Eye Care Center, and served as clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology at Louisiana State University in New Orleans.
He is a past president of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) and the Louisiana Academy of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. He has served on the boards of directors of AAPOS, the Children’s Eye Foundation, and the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. He received the Honor Award, the Senior Honor Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Parks Bronze Medal from AAPOS and the Achievement Award, two Secretariat Awards, and the Outstanding Advocate Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and he was elected to the American Ophthalmological Society. Since his retirement from clinical practice in 2018, Brad has served as president of the Foundation Advisory Board of CEF-AAPOS, and he is the founder and chair of the foundation’s Vision Through Music program.
During Brad’s time on the AAPOS board of directors, the organization became more active in advocacy issues, and during his year as president, AAPOS established a formal relationship with the National Association of School Nurses. This was followed by AAPOS collaboration with other advocacy organizations. At the state, federal, and international level, Brad has been a champion for our patients and our profession.
A highlight of Brad’s career has been working in international ophthalmology, and he has performed and taught pediatric eye surgery in more than thirty countries, with multiple visits to many of those countries. He served on the Cybersight Medical Advisory Board of Orbis International in the early years of Cybersight. He is gratified to see the remarkable improvement in pediatric ophthalmology care around the world in the past forty years, due in great part to the efforts of many AAPOS members.
Brad and his wife, Cindy, have two children, Jennifer and Daniel; a daughter-in-law, Faye; and two grandchildren, Julian and June, and their greatest joy is their family. Cindy and Brad divide their time between Baton Rouge and Orange Beach, Alabama, and they enjoy travel, music, and reading. Brad is an ocean sailor, hiker, sea kayaker, and musician. In his leisure time, you can often find him cruising the Gulf of Mexico on his thirty-five-foot sloop.