WVU Eye Institute receives gift to aid vision research

Research at the West Virginia University Eye Institute will be advanced by a gift from Dr. Jodie Trotter of Morgantown made in honor of her late husband, Dr. Robert R. Trotter.

The Drs. Robert R. and Jodie Trotter Vision Research Fund will provide support to clinical and bench research, and have a significant impact on the Eye Institute’s researchers’ ability to find better ways of treating eye disease and preventing blindness that will impact West Virginians and beyond. Dr. Jodie Trotter has had a relationship with the Department of Ophthalmology long before it moved to the Eye Institute when it opened its doors in 2001. Dr. Trotter’s husband, Robert R. Trotter, M.D., was the founder and first chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the WVU School of Medicine.

A native West Virginian and WVU alum, Dr. Trotter returned to his West Virginia roots in 1961 after teaching at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the clinical arm of Harvard Medical School. Thanks to his desire to give back to West Virginia, he worked diligently to create the Department of Ophthalmology and chaired the department for twenty years. He passed away in June of 2006. Dr. Jodie Trotter’s love of her husband, and believing in the importance of education and research, along with a successful career as a psychologist, led to her decision to carry on her husband’s legacy by dedicating to research and education at the WVU Eye Institute.

Dr. Jodie Trotter was chief psychologist at Kennedy Youth Center, clinical assistant professor at the WVU School of Medicine Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, and consultant of Social Security Disability for West Virginia. She established the first private practice in adult clinical psychology in West Virginia in 1976.

“We are very grateful for the generous gift Jodie Trotter provided the Eye Institute. By having funds available for research, our physicians and basic science researchers are able to advance their research to prevent blindness by better understanding and treating eye disease here in West Virginia and beyond,” said Dr. Ronald L. Gross, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the WVU Eye Institute. “This gift from Dr. Trotter is very fitting since her husband, Dr. Robert Trotter, was a true physician researcher and is the reason the Eye Institute exists today.”

Research is a top priority of the WVU Eye Institute where cutting-edge clinical and translational research involving all aspects of vision and visual science is being conducted. Eye Institute physicians and basic research scientists are working together to better understand the causes of eye diseases and to develop better treatments for blinding conditions. The WVU Eye Institute is the only academic facility in West Virginia conducting eye research. Private donations, like that of the Trotters, enhance research now and into the future.

The Drs. Robert L. and Jodie Trotter Vision Research Fund was created in conjunction with A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University. The $1 billion fundraising effort by the WVU Foundation on behalf of the University runs through December 2017.

See more: http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2015/09/17/gift-to-aid-vision-research-at-wvu-eye-institute