Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of eye tissue recovery, including on very young donors. All donor gifts are precious contributions to our life-changing work. Please take care.
By Caroline Miller, Marketing & Communications Specialist
For Kris Mavin, being a recovery technician at Eversight isn’t just a career—it’s a mission driven by compassion, resilience and the transformative power of restored sight.
In his 16-year career, Kris has worked tirelessly across the state of Michigan—often under challenging conditions—to surgically recover corneal tissue or whole eyes from donors, giving people with vision impairments or corneal blindness the chance to see again.
His journey is a profound testament to the dedication it takes to transform tragedy into hope.
Recovery Technician: An unexpected calling
“I never thought about eye banking,” Kris said. “My brother, Kyle, actually used to work at Eversight. Now, I’m going on my sixteenth year here.”
When Kris first joined Eversight, he hadn’t imagined the depth and meaning his work would bring.
“I tell people, I have the best job in the world,” he said, although he acknowledges not everyone feels the same. “Some people are repulsed by it, while others are fascinated.”
Kris, who has also been a pastor for over 30 years, approaches his role with a unique blend of faith and pragmatism. His work, which often takes him into morgues, hospitals, medical examiner offices and funeral homes, requires him to find purpose in what can be overwhelming loss.
“We have an amazing opportunity to turn what, for many people, is the worst days of their lives, into one of the best days of their lives,” he said. “Because they understand now that the death of their loved one can mean something more, and we, in very unique ways, are the beginning of their healing process.”
When people outside the field of donation and transplantation hear the words “eye bank” they oftentimes think of iPhone products or investment banking. However, Kris never tires of telling people what he does, and the impact eye banks like Eversight have on those in need.
“This is how I explain it to people,” Kris said. “I'm one of ten team members in Michigan that surgically remove different parts of the eye from donors. Sometimes it's just the cornea. Sometimes it's the whole eye. I explain that the cornea is kind of the front window of the eye. And those who experience corneal blindness have a 97 percent success rate of having their sight restored through transplantation.”
Kris has learned that many people are fascinated by his job but reasonably get hung up on death being a key component.
"One of the last things I do before I scrub in, is I'll pull the hair out of their eyes and just kind of rake the hair down,” he said. “That kind of recenters me to, ‘All right, this is somebody's mom. This is somebody's wife, somebody's dad, somebody's brother.’ So, it brings me back to, they're not a thing, they're a person giving a remarkable gift.”
A family man balancing many roles
Outside of work, Kris’s life is equally full. He and his wife—his sixth-grade sweetheart—are parents to eight children, including seven adopted sons.
His wife, a seven-time cancer survivor, inspires him daily with her strength and resilience. Together, they founded two schools, Thrive Leadership Academy and Rooted Christian Academy, where Kris serves as executive director and teacher.
“This year, I’m even teaching forensic science,” he said, noting how his experiences as a recovery technician enrich his lessons.
As a pastor, Kris has a biblical worldview that he believes allows him to have a unique appreciation for each donor.
“I happen to think that their soul is no longer there,” Kris said. “I'll often talk to people about what it is I do and so many people are willing to donate. That type of giving spirit, that never becomes calloused to me. That is always fresh. The hurt that those family members are going through, it's always fresh.”
Challenges on the road
Kris’s job often takes him across Michigan in all kinds of weather. Over the years, he’s driven through blizzards, floods and countless deer crossings—15 of which resulted in collisions.
“I’ve totaled three vehicles doing recoveries,” he said. His current truck already has 97,000 miles at just a year and a half old.
The driving itself can be harrowing.
“I’ve driven through flooded highways with water up to my windows, tucked behind a semi-truck because all I could see were the taillights,” Kris said.
Yet no matter the obstacles, he presses on knowing the importance of his work.
“You might have had a heck of a time getting to that donor,” he said. “You come in with all kinds of emotions, maybe you've had a rough drive on the way over, you're sitting in traffic, maybe you're frustrated with getting a crappy shift. So, you come with a myriad of emotions, but you've got to be able to control that because it affects how you recover.
“Once you get there, you have your donor, you're set up, you get ready to start your recovery. To me, that place becomes a sanctuary.”
The realities of recovery
The conditions Kris faces during recoveries are often far from ideal.
“I’ve worked in morgues no bigger than a single office, with just a two-person cooler, no table, no sharps container—just a trash can and a hanging light bulb,” he said.
He’s had to improvise, using linen carts as makeshift tables and relying on a headlamp for light. Despite the discomfort and logistical challenges, Kris approaches each recovery with professionalism and care.
One of his most vivid memories involved a morgue with a particularly challenging setup.
“It was a narrow space with a single bulb overhead, and I had to position myself like I was playing Tetris to get everything done,” he said.
Regardless of circumstance, Kris ensures that every donor is treated with dignity and respect.
The weight of pediatric donors
For Kris, the most emotionally taxing cases are pediatric donors, especially infants.
“We had three in a row—babies as young as two hours old,” he said. “Our instruments aren’t made for little people, so I had to adapt everything on site.”
One case stands out in particular: a baby born without a skull who had been held by his family for all 23 hours of his precious life.
“When I recovered on him, he was still warm from the number of family members that were holding him all day long,” Kris said.
Another family brought their infant to the recovery room themselves, something Kris was not prepared for, but had to adapt in the moment.
“They bring this little guy in and there's this uncomfortable silence that's taking place,” he said. “The mom asked if she could give her baby a kiss. I told her, ‘Of course you can.’ Every person who gives us the opportunity to recover on their loved one, it's precious, but those pediatric donors and that family who brought their little boy in, that was next level.”
Despite the emotional toll, Kris finds solace in knowing these donations contribute to groundbreaking research.
“Most families wouldn’t opt for this opportunity, but researchers wait decades for such tissue,” he explains. “These little lives, though short, make an incredible impact.”
A transformative mission
Kris’s ability to look beyond the immediate challenges of his work and focus on the long-term impact keeps him motivated.
“You have to develop a thick skin, because if we don't do what we do, the tissue can't get to where it needs to go,” Kris said. “We're a pretty important cog in the cycle of sight, and I think once you give mental assent to that, it gives you a different perspective altogether.”
He carries this perspective even when faced with the darkest aspects of his work.
“I’ve seen horrific things: gunshot wounds, suicides, devastating accidents,” Kris said. Yet, he marvels at the beauty of holding a cornea and knowing it could restore sight.
“When you’re holding that tissue, you don’t see the devastation—it’s just precious.”
A team effort
“On our team, people are motivated to get the job done and get it done well, so that that tissue can get on and be handed off to the next stage of what we do at Eversight to truly make vision a reality,” he said. “It rings true. We're the ones that are boots on the ground that eat, drink, sleep that stuff, because truly that's the reality of what we do.”
Not only does Kris recognize his own team, but also the other departments at Eversight that make the cycle of sight possible and his job so rewarding.
“We’re just one part of a complicated machine,” he said. “From the call center to the processing team to the surgeons, Philanthropy and Marketing, everyone plays a critical role in making vision a reality.”
Kris often reflects on the profound privilege of his work.
“Somebody has to die to trigger what we do,” he said. “It’s devastating, but it leads to something beautiful—someone seeing the world’s colors again, enjoying every sunrise and sunset.”
A lifetime of dedication
As Kris approaches his 16th anniversary at Eversight, he remains deeply committed to the mission.
“People don’t always know what we do, but they know when we don’t do it,” he said. “We’re like farmers—people expect the result, but don’t see the effort it takes to make it happen.”
Through every storm, every challenging recovery and every grieving family he encounters, Kris stays grounded in the knowledge that his work changes lives.
“I love what I do,” he said.
And for Kris Mavin, that love—rooted in service, resilience and hope—continues to define a remarkable career.
