Former President to Rejoin Sights for Hope’s Board of Directors in January

Former Sights for Hope Board President Linwood Gehris will rejoin the organization’s Board of Directors on January 1 as its Endowment Foundation Director.

Gehris – who served on board from 2014-2023 and as President from 2017-2021 – has been elected by the affiliated Sights for Hope Endowment Foundation to be its representative to the Sights for Hope board in 2025. To promote cooperation and communication between the organizations, Sights for Hope’s bylaws allow the endowment to elect a representative to its board annually. Endowment Board President Martin Lang, who will continue in that role in 2025, has been that representative since 2011.

During his tenure as Sights for Hope’s Board President from, Gehris led the organization through an executive leadership transition, the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the change of its name to Sights for Hope in 2021. After departing from the Sights for Hope board due to term limitations, Gehris was elected to the Sights for Hope endowment board as of July 2023.

Gehris is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor with Affiliated Financial Planners, for whom he has worked for 11 years. Prior to becoming a financial planner, Gehris was a Project Manager for Morris Black & Sons, Inc. Gehris is a Past District Governor of Pennsylvania Lions District 14-K. He remains active in several roles with Pennsylvania Lions District 14-K and has served as a Board Member for the Lions of Pennsylvania Foundation.

Sights for Hope’s Board of Directors represents the American people as stewards of the organization. It holds fiduciary responsibility and provides strategic direction to ensure the fulfillment of its mission and vision.

The Sights for Hope Endowment Foundation is an independent nonprofit corporation that is affiliated with Sights for Hope while governed by a separate Board of Directors. The endowment foundation was established in 1980 to provide funding opportunities based on best investment practices to secure Sights for Hope’s strength in the present and sustainability in the future.

Sights for Hope transforms the lives of people with visual impairments and blindness by removing the barriers to their independence. Sights for Hope’s services teach adaptive skills to accomplish daily life activities; provide supports that counter the effects of visual impairments and blindness; increase access to medical care, healthy food, and other essentials; and advance solutions that enhance sight capabilities. More than 40% of Sights for Hope’s clients live below or near the federal poverty line. Founded in 1928, Sights for Hope carries forward in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Monroe County a tradition of service inspired by Helen Keller and is a member of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind.

Image: Headshot of Linwood Gehris, who is wearing a black suit jacket and a red tie.