Victoria Sheffield is a recognized leader in international eye health programming, training, and hospital sustainability with over 50 years’ experience in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. She has traveled to 109 countries (most many times), lived in 5 countries on 4 continents including the UK where she was born, and has professional experience in 48 countries.

Ms. Sheffield is a Vietnam-era veteran of the US Air Force Medical Corps, 1966-1972 serving in the US, the Philippines, and Italy. She studied Ophthalmic Medical Technology at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC 1975-1977. Ms. Sheffield was President & CEO of the International Eye Foundation (IEF) from 1990 until her retirement in 2020 as well as working with IEF from 1979-1983 serving three years living and working in Kenya with IEF’s USAID-funded “Kenya Rural Blindness Prevention Project” and supporting IEF programs in Egypt and the Caribbean. She joined Helen Keller International (HKI) in 1984 as Director of Technical, Educational, and Scientific Services designing country-specific training programs and materials, and conducted surveys with a focus on vitamin A deficiency for several countries in Asia and Africa. She worked closely with UNICEF and CDC during the drought and famine in Ethiopia and Sudan 1985-1989 battling vitamin A deficiency and trachoma and was seconded by HKI to the World Health Organization’s "Programme for Prevention of Blindness" 1985-1987 in Geneva designing and producing public eye health education materials which were produced and translated by WHO into 13 languages worldwide.

Ms. Sheffield currently is a consultant Senior Technical Advisor for USAID’s Child Blindness Program; Vice Chair, International Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus Council’s Advisory Board; Member, American Academy of Ophthalmology’s (AAO) Global Education & Outreach Committee; Member, National Eye Institute’s Ad Hoc Executive Committee of Global Partners in Vision Research; and was Vice President of the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) 2015-2021. She has authored over 25 articles, 6 book chapters, and given over 70 presentations at US and international conferences. Her awards include an AAO Senior Achievement Award 2014; IAPB Vision Excellence Award 2020; AAO Secretariat Award 2013; MEACO’s Prince Abdulaziz Ahmad Al Saud Prevention of Blindness Award 2010; rank of Dame from the late HM Queen Elizabeth II in The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem where she served on the St John Eye Hospital’s Board of Trustees 2009-2015. Ms. Sheffield is recognized in Who’s Who in America and lives with her husband Howard Pyle, Esq. in Alexandria, VA.