Long before she facilitated webinars, supported surgeon training across the country or spoke with recipients, Ebony Johnson spent overnight shifts in Eversight’s Communication and Logistics Center, now the Donation Support Center, making phone calls to grieving families.
Nearly 14 years later, one conversation still drives Ebony’s purpose and passion for helping others.
A young mother had died while saving her children, and Ebony was tasked with speaking to her husband about eye donation. The husband was so happy that Ebony called so that his wife could be a donor, but understandably, he cried throughout the conversation.
“I cried too,” Ebony said. “I thought about my kids, because my kids were really young at the time, and the mom had no idea that she was protecting her kids, but she did, and they didn't have a scratch on them. She saved those kids, and she saved two other people through sight restoration.”
It was after that phone call that Ebony realized she couldn’t be on this end of the cycle of sight. With a background in social work, Ebony was used to seeing families reunited and having a happy ending.
“Every single call, there wasn't a happy ending. There was a loss,” she said. “There was an extreme loss, and I took on those emotions, with each family that I spoke to. So, I didn't think that I would make it.”
But somewhere inside that heartbreak, she also found clarity.
“I did become more comfortable in that position, speaking with those families and helping them through the loss,” she said. “I learned that it was healing for them to know that their loved one was able to help somebody else. So that's why I stayed.”
That realization would shape every role Ebony has held at Eversight since.
Today, as Senior Partner Relations Director, Ebony supports surgeons and clinical partners across Michigan, Ohio and Florida, helping connect donors, surgeons and recipients throughout the cycle of sight. But at the center of every conversation—whether she is supporting a wet lab, helping resolve an urgent tissue need or educating physicians about eye donation—is the same mindset she carried during those overnight calls years ago:
“With every aspect of my career here in Eversight, I have always thought about the people who we're helping and how we are impacting them,” she said.
Ebony’s path to Eversight was anything but linear. She attended Michigan State University intending to pursue nursing before ultimately earning her degree in psychology. After graduation, she worked in social services before stepping away from her career to raise her three sons.
Later, she became a licensed realtor and real estate appraiser, balancing work and motherhood simultaneously. But after the 2008 housing crisis shifted the course of her real estate career, Ebony found herself returning to what had always fulfilled her most: helping people.
“I realized something was missing,” she said. “That connection, helping families.”
At the time, her ex-husband worked at Gift of Life Michigan and encouraged her to apply for a position at their partner organization, Eversight, then known at Midwest Eye Banks. She had never even heard of eye banking. Still, something about the work drew her in. Ebony started her career at Eversight in 2012.
After about a year in the call center, Ebony transitioned to the Tissue Distribution team, where she worked closely with surgeons coordinating corneal tissue for transplant.
There, Eversight’s mission became even more tangible, aligning with Ebony’s own values.
She heard stories of cornea recipients regaining independence to drive again, parents seeing their children’s faces clearly for the first time and people experiencing everyday moments many take for granted.
“That was a full-circle moment for me,” Ebony said. “Working with the surgeons and learning how donor tissue changed their patients' lives. I went from the donor side to the recipient side, and it gave what we do a whole other perspective.”
The work became deeply personal as a mother herself. She often thought about what it would mean to lose her sight—and what restored vision could give back.
“Mothers being able to help their children with homework or take them to soccer practice,” she said. “That stayed with me.”
By the time she joined the Partner Relations team in 2019, Ebony had already spent years understanding nearly every part of the eye banking, donation and transplantation journey.
That experience continues to shape the way she approaches relationships with surgeons today.
“Being in this role for seven years, every day is an opportunity to enhance our relationship with our surgeon partners—making sure they understand the cycle of sight. I want to make sure they are good stewards of the gifts entrusted to them and communicate to those partners that we are just as invested in their surgery outcomes or their patient outcomes as they are.”
Partner Relations teams are sometimes viewed through a transactional lens—focused primarily on logistics, products or services. But Ebony believes here at Eversight, the work the Partner Relations team is doing is far more human than people realize.
“As a member of the Partner Relations team, we have a responsibility to have meaningful conversations with surgeons and their staff to ensure they understand that this is donor tissue and someone had to pass away in order for them to get this tissue,” Ebony said. “I think that really does contribute to honoring our donors and helping to restore sight.”
Her days can involve everything from supporting wet labs and training surgeons to troubleshooting urgent needs, helping onboard surgeons or providing operating room support.
But underneath all of it is relationship-building.
For many surgeons, Ebony’s voice was familiar long before her face was. After years working in tissue distribution, she had already spent countless late-night calls coordinating cases and helping solve problems behind the scenes.
“When I finally met some of those surgeons in person, it felt like meeting old friends,” she said.
That continuity and trust matters deeply to her.
“We’re constantly asking, ‘How can we help your team? How can we help your patients?’” Ebony said. “That’s the relationship.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped launch Eversight’s Young Physicians Group, a collaborative virtual forum for residents, fellows and early-career ophthalmologists to gather and learn from one another.
Designed as a supportive environment for case discussion and mentorship, the program intentionally avoids promotional messaging.
“It’s not about marketing Eversight,” Ebony said. “We want people to feel welcome, supported and comfortable learning together.”
That collaborative spirit extends into the wet labs, webinars and conferences Ebony participates in every year. Some of her favorite moments come during large training events where multiple eye banks work together side-by-side.
For Ebony, the stories of people whose lives have been changed through donation and transplantation resonate most deeply.
Recently, she helped support a Medical Service Trip for a surgeon traveling to Jerusalem, Israel, to help patients who had waited years for vision care. Eversight provided 11 corneal tissues to be transplanted to those in need.
When the surgeries were ultimately successful, she found herself overwhelmed reading about the impact afterward.
“Hearing how hard our surgeons work makes me want to work even harder,” she said.
Those moments serve as reminders of why the work matters—and why every department at Eversight plays an essential role in the mission.
“There’s no department that’s more important than another,” Ebony said. “We all exist equally, moving forward for the same purpose.”
As she looks toward the future, Ebony is especially excited about Eversight’s growing global reach and emerging innovations in regenerative medicine and stem cell research.
No matter how much the field of eye banking evolves, she hopes one thing never changes: the humanity at the center of the work.
"I hope to keep getting better every day, to keep learning and to continue having meaningful conversations about the impact of eye donation,” she said.
“The Partner Relations team works tirelessly to make sure donors and their families are never forgotten,” Ebony said. “That’s something I carry with me everywhere I go.”
Every role at Eversight helps advance the gift of sight. Explore more employee stories and learn how our team members contribute to restoring sight and advancing vision research.