About

Vista Center empowers individuals who are blind or visually impaired to embrace life to the fullest through evaluation, counseling, education, and training.

Our Story

Vista Center is the premier service provider for people who are blind or have low vision from ages 3 to 103, offering a complete range of rehabilitative services to residents of the Bay Area and beyond.

Human eye up-close

Palo Alto Society for the Blind opened in 1936 as a home open to anyone in Palo Alto living with blindness or visual impairment.


With a shift over the years from residential services to fostering independent living, the name changed to Peninsula Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in 1970, with a final name change in 2005 to Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Since 2001, Vista has been the only provider of services in San Benito County, an area previously unserved. Doran Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Santa Cruz merged with Vista Center in 2007 and in 2018, Santa Clara Valley Blind Center (SCVBC) in San Jose joined the team.


Such growth has greatly increased our capacity to serve thousands of clients with a robust array of geographically centered services and classes, in complement to our existing itinerant services model.

IMPACT

Financial Strength

Decades of strong leadership, careful financial management and a commitment to a solid investment strategy has built a legacy of stability and efficiency.

Leadership Team

Vista staff members are key to mission delivery, bringing a wide array of
professional experience and a genuine desire to improve the lives of others.

Karae Lisle

Chief Executive Officer

Bethany Small

Chief Programs Officer

Marty Cunnie

Chief Financial Officer (Virtual)

Catalina Reynolds Cavallieri

Chief of Staff

Neeraj Gupta

Communications Relationships Manager

Vinney Arora

Chief Development Officer (Virtual)

Poonam Malik

Director, Institutional Giving

Lisa Quan

Branch Director, San Jose Office

Sophia Boylan

Assistant Manager Santa Cruz Clinic and Program Operations

Steve Tomczyk

Chief Information Officer (Virtual)

Marlu Treuhaft-Silva

Associate Director of Low Vision Clinics

Board of Directors

Vista board members contribute valuable expertise to fulfill our mission,
reaching into the many communities we serve, so that all voices are heard.

Meaux Costello

Wealth Advisor, Buckingham Strategic Wealth

Joan Desmond

Journalist

John Giddings

Adjunct Professor, Santa Clara University

Susan Glass

Board Vice-Chair, Vista Center

John Glass

Board Chair Emeritus

Katie Hogan

Learning Specialist & SSD Coordinator, Bellarmine College Preparatory

John Hufferd

Consultant, Hufferd Enterprises

Karae Lisle

CEO, Vista Center

Patrice Maginnis

Board Chair, Vista Center

Roberto Manduchi

Professor, UC Santa Cruz

Bill Miklos

Board Chair Emeritus
Retired, Lockheed-Martin

Marquise Murphy

Principal, Marquise Real Estate Partners

Nicole Paiement

Executive Artistic Director, Opera Parallèle

Mike Plesha

Principal Consultant, Expense Reduction Analysts

Steven Sanislo

Clinical Professor, Stanford University

Bob Stewart

CEO, Yardam Technologies

Ashley Tuan, Ph.D.

Ophthalmic Product Development Professional

Advisory & Ad Hoc Committees

Community leaders and emeritus board members serve in many roles to advance the work of Vista Center, individually and on ad hoc committees coordinating events and special initiatives.

Interested in volunteering your expertise?

Help those with vision
loss lead better lives.

Join Vista Center’s dedicated team of volunteers and learn
how you can get involved with the community!