Jon Pynoos is a professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California. He was diagnosed with keratoconus (KC) when he was in college at Harvard. His parents, Rita & Morris Pynoos took an interest in the disease that no one had heard of and could not even pronounce.
In the 1980’s, Mr. & Mrs. Pynoos organized a support group for those who had keratoconus and soon after that the Discovery Fund for Eye Research (later the Discovery Eye Foundation – DEF) was started. The mission was to promote and support eye research for vision disorders like KC. With support of another family affected by keratoconus the National Keratoconus Foundation (NKCF) was created.
Jon Pynoos became very involved with both organizations. He is still an active member on the board of directors for DEF and he also sits on a governing board that oversees the activities of NKCF.