Alan Richards, MD, has dedicated his three-decade career to promoting the eye health of children in Louisiana and beyond. The first pediatric ophthalmologist to establish a practice in Louisiana, Alan Richards, MD, developed the state’s guidelines for childhood vision screening during the early years of his career. Today, he chairs the state’s Vision Advisory Board and serves as an ophthalmologist for the Children’s Special Health Services Program of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Committed to supporting healthy vision in children worldwide, Dr. Alan Richards acts as Chairman of the Board for the charitable organization Shreveport Sees Russia. In that capacity, Dr. Richards has helped to save the eyesight of infants in Russia and Eastern Europe by raising funds to educate health professionals on the potentially blinding eye disorder known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). He has sent leading experts to Moscow to provide training and has himself traveled there twice to teach the diagnosis and treatment of ROP. Dr. Richards has also served on the Vision Screening and Socioeconomic Committees of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) and is a current member of the Children’s Eye Foundation, which is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of eye diseases in children.

In recognition of Dr. Richards’ contributions to the field of pediatric ophthalmology, the AAPOS has bestowed upon him its Honor Award. At the present time, Dr. Richards draws upon his expertise in genetic eye disorders and complex strabismus to diagnose and treat patients at the Highland Clinic and at his private practice, Richards & Hinrichsen, in Shreveport, Louisiana. Additionally, he teaches ophthalmology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, where he also treats indigent patients and examines premature infants for ROP.