A New Generation of Optometric Educators and Researchers on Parade

A profession looks to its newest members for the future and at the American Academy of Optometry annual meeting in Tampa in October 2007 there was an impressive line up of candidate educator and research leaders at hand. In large part the early identification of the upcoming generation of educators and researchers has been made possible by the generosity of the profession and its industry friends through the American Optometric Foundation (AOF). AOF is experiencing dramatic and exciting growth and is an increasingly innovative presence in optometry. It supports education and research through a number of programs, and there were some interesting examples of how this impacts the profession that were quite evident at the 2007 annual meeting. The Carl Zeiss AOF Fellows program debuted in 2007 as a result of a creative and generous partnership of Carl Zeiss Vision and AOF. The program identifies one optometry student at each school and college of optometry in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, awards them a $5000 Fellowship, and brings them to optometry's premier education and research meeting (the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry). It then brings them back the following year for a Fellows reunion and is funded by Carl Zeiss Vision. The Fellowship Awards are made by AOF using FAAO reviewer input from across North America. As AOF President Mark Bullimore, OD, PhD, FAAO noted, as he spoke to these Fellows, “People are still talking about meeting you all at the Academy Meeting. You were fabulous ambassadors for your institution and for the future of optometry. On behalf of the Foundation, the Academy, and Carl Zeiss Vision, I want to say how proud we are of your achievements and how excited we are about the future.” The program was the brainchild of Mike Morris of Carl Zeiss Vision working with the Mark Bullimore. Mike can be seen with his “inaugural fellows” in Fig. 1. This is likely a ‘class' that yields star educators of the future; it certainly has tapped some impressive optometric talent.FIGURE 1.: AOF-Carl Ziess Vision AOF Fellows 2007, with Michael Morris, OD and Fred Howard of Carl Zeiss Vision.Another ‘team' at the annual meeting was the AOF Ezell Fellows. These fellows are typically optometrists who have already made a commitment to an optometric career in research and discovery by working toward a PhD research degree. They are certainly the cream of the crop in terms of their successful competition for each Fellowship; for every Fellowship Award there were close to four top notch applicants! The Academy Research Committee, led by Gunilla Haegerstrom-Portnoy, OD, PhD, FAAO each year, reviews mounds of fine applications and seems more impressed each year with the caliber of those headed down this career path. They make impassioned pleas for increased support to AOF allowing funding of a greater number of optometry's most talented and promising clinician researchers and research trainees. At the AOF Celebration luncheon in Tampa this Ezell team lined up with President Mark Bullimore and received the appreciation and obvious pride in their achievements from an overflow audience (Fig. 2). Attendees were impressed with the big jump in AOF support over the past year ($750,000 increase), giving the Foundation an almost $3 million portfolio of funds allowing $300,000 in Awards to be distributed annually.FIGURE 2.: Ezell Fellows 2007, with AOF President Mark A. Bullimore, OD, PhD, FAAO.And yet a third example of a 2007 team of promising colleagues at the Academy meeting were those attending the Academy's inaugural Residents Day program sponsored by CooperVision. It featured 24 case presentations and lively discussions among residents, faculty and colleagues. While these are distinct ‘classes' or cohorts with a common distinction, there were also many other student participants at Tampa who were thrilled to interact with hundreds of students, and the thousands of optometrists, Academy Fellows, and leading educators and researchers in optometry. Their enthusiasm was palpable. Above four Illinois College of Optometry students were encouraged by Irv Borish, OD, FAAO as they proudly presented their poster (Fig. 3).FIGURE 3.: Dr Irvin M. Borish, OD, FAAO visits with Illinois College of Optometry students.This next generation of educators, researchers, and first rate clinician practitioners witnessed tremendous and inspiring leadership presentations. For example, how could they not have been inspired by the stunning and ground breaking research presentations of both the Charles F. Prentice Medalist and Glenn A. Fry Awardees, Judah Folkman, MD and Christine Wildsoet, OD, PhD, FAAO, respectively? They are seen at the Awards session of the Academy meeting (Figs. 4 and 5).FIGURE 4.: Judah Folkman, MD, delivers 2007 Charles F. Prentice Lecture: AAO 2007.FIGURE 5.: Christine Wildsoet, OD, PhD, FAAO receives AOF 2007 Glenn A. Fry Award.If optometry's future is to be measured by the pool of young talent that was evident at Tampa, then it has a very bright future indeed! Anthony J. Adams Editor-in-Chief Berkeley, California

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