Carl R. Augusto

President & Chief Executive Officer
American Foundation for the Blind

Carl R. Augusto, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) since May 1991, is a preeminent leader in the field of blindness and visual impairment, having served in a variety of professional and volunteer capacities since 1971. During his tenure, he has guided AFB toward improved fiscal stability and greater focus in addressing critical issues facing the field of blindness. He has expanded AFB's scope to influence corporate America to make products and services accessible to blind and visually impaired people and has brought organizations, of and for the blind, together toward common objectives and greater collaboration. From 1985 until his appointment as AFB's President, he served as Executive Director of the Cincinnati Association for the Blind (CAB), a multiservice private agency. His accomplishments included expanding service programs to encompass assistive technology training and early childhood intervention.

From 1975 to 1985, Augusto held several staff and management positions with the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped (NAC) in New York City. Appointed NAC's Associate Executive Director in 1981, he coordinated review teams responsible for evaluating services and management practices of agencies and schools in the blindness system nationwide and assumed a leadership role in the revision of NAC's management standards.

Prior to his positions with NAC, Augusto worked as a rehabilitation counselor for blind clients with the New York State Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped and Helen Keller Services for the Blind, a private multi-service agency headquartered in Brooklyn.

Augusto is currently the President of the North American/Caribbean Region of the World Blind Union (WBU). He also serves on the board of the National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations, and is a former board member of the National Industries for the Blind, the Descriptive Video Service of WGBH in Boston, and Radio Reading Services of Greater Cincinnati, Inc. He was a member of AFB's Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1991, President of the Cincinnati Host Lions Club from 1988 to 1989, and a past chair of the strategic planning, certification review, and bylaws and structure committees of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).

Mr. Augusto has published several articles within and outside of the blindness field. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Robert B. Irwin Award presented by National Industries for the Blind for outstanding contributions to the employment of people who are blind; the George Card Award, presented by the American Council of the Blind for outstanding services to blind people; the J. Kenneth Cozier Award for distinguished services in Ohio, presented by the Ohio Chapter of AER; the distinguished Service Award from the California Council for the Blind; the Ken Morlock Award for Outstanding Service to the Blind and Visually Impaired Community, presented by the American Council of the Blind of Ohio; the Centennial Award, presented by the Xavier Society for the Blind; and the Louis Braille Award presented by the Associated Services for the Blind for making a significant contribution on behalf of those who are blind or visually impaired.

Mr. Augusto holds a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from New York University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Connecticut.