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By Addison Vinson, NORTH GEORGIA 2028
Dr. Joe Fammartino, PITTSBURGH 1972, has volunteered with Medical Ministry International for more than 30 years, leading eye care teams across South America and Asia to bring free vision care to those who would otherwise go without
Dr. Joe Fammartino, PITTSBURGH 1972, was looking for a way to extend his surgical talents — and, if possible, bring his three daughters along for the journey. In 1994, he discovered a volunteer medical mission group through the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He signed up and never looked back.
More than 30 years and 32 international missions later, Fammartino serves as medical director of an eye care team with Medical Ministry International (MMI), a Canada-based nonprofit whose volunteers have provided direct care to more than 125,000 people worldwide. For his extraordinary commitment to restoring sight to the world’s most vulnerable, Fammartino has been named this quarter’s Mark V. Anderson Character-in-ActionTM Leadership Award recipient.
MMI eye teams typically include around eight ophthalmologists and roughly 40 total volunteers. For 14 years, Fammartino’s team served impoverished communities across Colombia before he became medical director and transitioned the group to Bolivia, where they have worked for the past eight years. Intermittently, he and his wife, Toni, have also traveled to Myanmar. On a recent two-week trip to Bolivia alone, the team saw just under 3,000 patients — many receiving their first pair of glasses.
The most common condition is cataracts so advanced they would rarely be seen in the United States. Using a technique adapted from methods developed by ophthalmologists in India, the team restores vision within a day of surgery. A pediatric ophthalmologist on the team also corrects crossed eyes in children — often 35 to 40 procedures per trip — giving kids a new chance at school and a healthy sense of self.
“You see people that are blind,” Fammartino says. “They’re brought in not seeing — and then the day after, they’re starting to see again. They can see their family, their grandchildren. It’s pretty moving.”
The moment that stays with Fammartino involves a Colombian man in his 50s, led in by his wife because cataracts had left him nearly blind. He operated on one eye. The following year, when the team’s bus pulled up, the man rushed to the window — back for his second surgery and eager to share that he now ran a small coffee kiosk.
“It gives you such a warm, positive feeling about how simple it is, but how it changes people’s lives,” he says.
In January 2019, Fammartino’s life changed when he and Toni were struck by a snowplow, leaving him with a brain injury requiring six weeks in a neurosurgical ICU. When he tested himself at an advanced retinal surgery program at Duke, he found he could no longer carry through procedures he had performed for decades. He resigned from his practice and stepped back from performing surgeries on mission trips — but he did not step away from service.
“God has been just unbelievably gracious because as I recovered, I was able to remember how to do basic eye care,” he says. “There are other avenues to provide eye care without doing the fancy surgeries.”
Since his recovery, Fammartino has continued as medical director of his MMI team — coordinating equipment, soliciting donations from manufacturers and triaging patients in the field. He completed his 32nd medical mission to South America in 2025. Closer to home, he and Toni volunteer at the Villa Therese Catholic Clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, offering free exams and glasses to low-income and uninsured patients, many of whom have never seen a doctor.
“The thing about Toni and Joe is they give so much — and I don’t just mean their time or their money,” says Clara Lee Arnold, director of development at the clinic. “They give of themselves, and that is what you really feel when you’re working with them.”
When asked what continues to compel him across time zones and decades, Fammartino’s answer is simple. He does not cite professional obligation or a sense of duty. He points to the morning after surgery and what it means to hand someone back the thing they thought they’d lost.
“It’s an opportunity to provide care well beyond going to your office and seeing patients,” he says. “It’s just a compelling opportunity to serve in a specialty where you can make that kind of difference.”
A person with good character shows trustworthiness, respect and fairness to others, as well as responsibility and citizenship. Those members who go out of their way to help others and those who overcome obstacles and lead with integrity are good candidates for the Mark V. Anderson Character-in-ActionTM Leadership Award.
Sigma Chi introduced the award to recognize the selfless acts of brothers. A formal recognition by the Fraternity allows non-members to appreciate the scope of the organization. For information about the award, see sigmachi.org/character.