Leadership

Shannon Dehesa, OD, is a native to Fresno County. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from UCLA. Shannon attended optometry school in Boston, MA where she graduated with clinical honors in 2009. She then completed a residency in pediatric and primary care optometry in 2010 at UC Berkeley School of Optometry. She worked as an assistant professor in pediatric optometry at Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry for 3 years.

After moving back to Fresno in 2016 with her husband and 2 children, she began partnering with the Tzu Chi Medical Foundation to provide free eye exams for children in low-income areas of Fresno County via the Tzu Chi Mobile Eye Unit. Shannon is passionate about giving back to her hometown community, and feels extremely blessed to provide children with the gift of an eye exam and glasses.

Courtney Shapiro is the Director of Community Relations for CalViva Health and the lead for the See 2 Succeed Partnership. She works directly with Tzu Chi to coordinate and schedule the mobile unit with the local school districts. She is also charged with working with businesses and funders to make sure the services offered remain free for all children. Courtney has served public and non-profit organizations in the Fresno area since 2003, focusing on community outreach, training, public administration, leadership building, marketing and development.

She holds a Bachelors in Communications and a Masters in Public Administration. Courtney is passionate about this work because she believes that providing free glasses to children will allow them to be ready to learn for school, which is one less barrier that they have to overcome.

Steven’s main focus is to build a network of providers and volunteers to serve underserved populations through free clinic outreach events focusing on medical, dental and visual health. He joined Tzu Chi in 2002 as a volunteer and in 2009, he joined Tzu Chi as a staff member, managing a fleet of mobile clinics to reach the homeless and migrant farmworkers.

In 2013, he started “Healthy Fresno”, a collaboration with local community partners, health centers and volunteers. In 2014, he worked with the Fresno community organizations to create See 2 Succeed, a vision program that provides free eye exams and free glasses to children in different school districts throughout the Central San Joaquin Valley.

Steven also oversees domestic outreach and mobile operations and he supports medical missions in areas through Central and Latin America.

Olivia has been volunteering with Tzu Chi since 2000 and is actively involved in Tzu Chi’s medical and charity mission.  Through Tzu Chi’s platform, she is able to put her passion into action to organize medical services for underprivileged groups in the Central Valley and promote Tzu Chi’s Medical Mission to community partners.

She oversees daily operation of the Tzu Chi Mobile Clinic in Fresno and also manages the fleet of mobile clinics (Fresno) reaching out to migrant workers in rural areas and surrounding areas.

She is the assistant coordinator for the See 2 Succeed Program, communicating directly with school nurses for vision screening and vision appointments for students in need, and coordinating the operation of the vision clinic. She believes quality vision care for kids at an early age will empower them to learn and explore new ideas.