Prof. Iva Dekaris, PhD, was elected President of the European Eye Bank Association  - EEBA for the second time, and she will carry out this function in the period 2019-2022. Until then, she will perform the duties of the Vice-President. EEBA is an umbrella European association that brings together all European eye banks and determines the doctrine and the latest procedures for the collection, validation, storage and distribution of donor corneal tissue. Eye banks that are members of the association have a recognizable certification for quality in the field of eye banking. Professor Iva Dekaris has had more than 15 years of experience in the eye banking and corneal transplant, she led several research projects of the Ministry of Science in the field of transplantation of the cornea and eye banking. She published several very important papers on immunology of the eye and the mechanisms of rejection of corneal transplant and the surgical techniques in this complex operation, resulting from her research activities in Boston and Zagreb.

The choice for the President of EEBA for the period of 2010-2013 was a great recognition for her personally as a scientist and surgeon, but also for the clinic Svjetlost, since this was the first time that a scientist from the eastern part of Europe became the President of this distinguished organization. Her second time election for the President of EEBA set a precedent because no one had thus far been elected twice for the president of this association, which is a great recognition and confirmation that her original mandate as the President of EEBA was very successful and that the novelties that she introduced as the President of the Association significantly improved the work of EEBA, so the delegates at the election convention put their trust into Professor Dekaris and elected her President of EEBA for the second time.