During ASCO’s Annual Business meeting in June, ASCO swears in a new President for the upcoming 12 months. This year, Dr. Mark Colip was sworn in as ASCO’s President.

The ASCO Diversity and Cultural Competency Committee supports member institutions as they embrace the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism in optometric education and in the profession.

The optometric community took part in a Thunderclap in late July, and there is still time to help #BringBackEyeDoctorBarbie!

The remaining three recordings of ASCO’s Eye on Diversity Speaker Series, a component of a larger diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiative generously sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Vision, are still available; but only through December 31, 2023.

With the Fall approaching, it’s a great time to revisit ASCO’s virtual cultural competency training workshop and toolkit. The workshop and toolkit are part of its Eye on Diversity Initiative, which is generously sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Vision.

ASCO announces a theme edition of the journal Optometric Education (https://journal.opted.org) that will be dedicated to global optometric education. ASCO welcomes manuscript submissions that highlight research, curricula, pedagogy, public health initiatives, and other projects that align with the theme edition’s mission of sharing ongoing efforts to advance the profession of optometry worldwide.

The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry offers a Career Center resource, hosted by Boxwood.

ASCO has many great publications for information and updates about the career of optometry and optometric education.

Alcon Expands Support for Optometric Institutions

CooperVision Opens Applications for its 2024 Best Practices Program

Let’s Focus on Your Future with a Scholarship from OCULUS

New Optomap Image Library Now Available 

Taking Myopia Management to the Highest Level with Topcon MYAH

Meet the 2023 Dr. Marvin R. Poston Leadership Award Winners

SUNY College of Optometry's Office of Continuing Professional Education recently held the Annual Race in Optometry webinar, now in its third year. The series launched in 2020 to stimulate a national, ongoing conversation on race and equity within the profession of optometry. Titled, "Race in Optometry: Headwinds - Exploring Emerging Barriers to Success," the virtual session was held Wednesday, June 28, 2023.

Mitchell Scheiman, OD, PhD ‘16, FAAO, dean of Research and director of Graduate Programs in Biomedicine at Salus University and professor at its Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), was inducted into the prestigious American Optometric Association’s (AOA) Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the group’s annual conference Optometry’s Meeting on June 23, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

National Academies Focus on Myopia Holds First Open Session

Three students from the Vision Science Graduate Program (VSGP) at the UAB School of Optometry have been awarded Ezell Fellowships from the American Academy of Optometry Foundation (AAOF) for 2023. This is the largest number of VSGP winners in a single year.

Dr. Janette Pepper, SCO Associate Professor, received the Dr. Paula Boone Community Service Award at the National Optometric Association’s annual meeting in Florida.

“We had a time!” was a familiar phrase uttered during and after the National Optometric Association (NOA) conference in Fort Lauderdale this year.

SUNY College of Optometry’s Dr. Alexandra Benavente-Pérez was awarded a $2.04 million grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI, Grant #R01EY034086), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that will explore the unknown nature of the relationship between myopia (nearsightedness) and glaucoma by focusing on their effect on the ganglion cell complex at the genetic, cellular, structural and functional levels.

For a career in distinguished achievements in the profession of optometry, Henry Greene, OD ‘74, FAAO, has been named a 2023 Presidential Medal of Honor award winner by Salus University.

The Ophthalmic Optics Educators (OOE) Special Interest Group (SIG) was held in Dallas, TX, on July 13-15, 2023. The two-day meeting hosted at EssilorLuxottica was both engaging and informative.

The Low Vision Educators Special Interest Group (SIG) met in Aurora, CO, on July 20-22, 2023. They were hosted by the Sue Anshutz-Rodgers Eye Center at University of Colorado. The meeting included various presentations by SIG members, a tour of the Low Vision Clinic and an exhibitor hall.

The National Academies' Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education hosted a multi-day workshop series in March and April 2023 to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in health professions education.

Dr. Alexander was a respected leader and a founding father of our organization. We aim to carry on his memory and legacy with this award. 

 

Any resident participating in an ACOE accredited residency program is eligible to apply. The award will be $1,100. In addition, the winning case report will be published in Review of Optometry.

Upon making the announcement, Foundation CEO Stacy Pagos Haller said, “We are thrilled to welcome our new board members to BrightFocus Foundation. Their collective dedication to innovation, equity, and improving health across generations is inspiring. Together, we are paving the way for a better future for the millions of people worldwide who are impacted by age-related neurodegenerative diseases that are core to BrightFocus Foundation’s mission.”