AOA Officer Profiles

RONALD L. HOPPING, O.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.O.

Ronald L. Hopping, O.D., M.P.H., was first elected to the American Optometric Association Board of Trustees in June 2005, re-elected in 2008, and ascended to the presidency at the 115^th Annual AOA Congress and 42^nd Annual AOSA Conference: Optometry's Meeting® in June 2012.

Prior to his election to the Board, Dr. Hopping served as chair of the AOA Information and Member Services Group and also of the AOA Communications Group Advisory Committee. He has served on the Healthy Eyes Healthy People Oversight Committee. He is a charter member of the AOA Contact Lens and Cornea Section and the Sports Vision Section. He is an InfantSEE® provider and a contributor to the AOA PAC at the Visionary level.  He has served as a full-time faculty member with the rank of Assistant Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. Dr. Hopping served as President of the Texas Optometric Association in 1996.

Dr. Hopping is a graduate of the Southern California College of Optometry. He received his Masters in Public Health from the University of Texas in 1982. He has received President's Awards for Outstanding Service from ten different state presidents and was recognized as the Texas Optometrist of the Year in 2002. Dr. Hopping received the Outstanding Faculty Award at the University of Houston College of Optometry and also received the Distinguished Service Award to the Profession from the Southern California College of Optometry in 2012. Dr. Hopping is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and is recognized as a Diplomate in Cornea and Contact Lenses. Additionally, he is recognized as a Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academies of Practice in Optometry.

Dr. Hopping is in independent practice with his spouse, Desiree Hopping, O.D., and two associates in the Clear Lake area of Houston, Texas. Dr. Hopping has two sons; Reed is a 4^th year optometry student, and Grant is premed/optometry.

Mitchell T. Munson, O.D.

Mitchell T. Munson, O.D. was elected to the American Optometric Association Board of Trustees in June 2006, re-elected in June 2009, and elected President-Elect at the 115^th Annual AOA Congress & 42^nd Annual AOSA Conference: Optometry's Meeting® in June 2012.

In addition to his duties as President-Elect, Dr. Munson is a member of the Executive, Agenda, and Personnel Committees. His liaison assignments include the AOA Meetings Center and affiliate associations in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and the Armed Forces Optometric Society, as well as the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry, Pacific University College of Optometry, Southern California College of Optometry and Western University of Health Sciences College of Optometry.

Prior to his election to the Board, Dr. Munson spent 10 years in the AOA volunteer structure serving on the AOA New Technologies Committee, Statutory Scope Committee and the AOA Political Action Committee where he served as chair from 2003-2004.

In 1992, he was elected to the Colorado Optometric Association (COA) Board of Trustees and elected president in 1995.  The COA named him Young Optometrist of the Year in 1993 and Optometrist of the Year in 1996. He was presented with COA's Distinguished Service Award in 2001.

Dr. Munson is a past president of the Southwest Council of Optometry and a Fellow in the American Academy of Optometry.

A 1986 graduate of the Southern California College of Optometry, Dr. Munson is the partner of a group practice in Highlands Ranch, CO, which includes his wife and classmate, Dr. Susan Brunnett.

David A. Cockrell, O.D.

David A. Cockrell, O.D., was elected to the American Optometric Association Board of Trustees in June 2005, re-elected in June 2008, and elected Vice President at the 115^th Annual AOA Congress & 42^nd Annual AOSA Conference: Optometry's Meeting® in June 2012.

In addition to his duties as Vice President, Dr. Cockrell is Speaker of the House Pro Tem, Chair of the Investment Committee, a member of the Executive Committee, as well as liaison to the Advocacy Group and Third Party Center.  His liaison assignments also include the affiliate associations in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, the New England College of Optometry and State University of New York State College of Optometry.

Prior to his election to the Board, Dr. Cockrell served as chair of the AOA State Government Relations Center, as well as AOA Primary Care and Patient Management, Statutory SCOPE, and Nominating and Resolutions committees.  He has also served in the AOA Federal Government Relations Center.

Dr. Cockrell is a graduate of the Southern College of Optometry. He is a past president of the Southwest Council of Optometry.  In Oklahoma, he served as chair of the Congress Committee as well as the State and Federal Legislative Committees.  He is a past President of the Oklahoma Association of Optometric Physicians and a former Oklahoma Optometrist of the Year.  He was named the Oklahoma Association of Optometric Physicians Distinguished Optometrist of the Year in 2012.  He has also served on the Oklahoma State Board of Examiners in Optometry since 1997.

Dr. Cockrell practices in Stillwater, OK, with his wife, Cherry B. Cockrell, O.D.; Jeff D. Miller, O.D.; partner, and John M. Millirons, O.D., associate.

Steven A. Loomis, O.D.

Steven A. Loomis, O.D., was first elected to the American Optometric Association Board of Trustees in 2007, re-elected in June 2010, and elected Secretary-Treasurer at the 115^th Annual AOA Congress & 42^nd Annual AOSA Conference: Optometry's Meeting® in June 2012.

As a member of the AOA Board, Dr. Loomis is chair of the Finance Committee and is a member of the Constitution and Bylaws, Executive and Investment Committees.  He is the board liaison to Optometry Cares - The AOA Foundation^TM and affiliate associations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as NOVA Southeastern University, College of Optometry and Southern College of Optometry.

Prior to his election to the Board, Dr. Loomis served as chair of the AOA State Government Relations Center.  He has also chaired the AOA Health Care Legislation Committee, the AOA Legal Defense Fund Oversight Committee, and the Resolutions Committee.  Prior to his involvement at AOA, Dr. Loomis was President of the Southwest Council of Optometry and the Colorado Optometric Association.

He and his wife, Kathy, have three grown children and twin granddaughters and a grandson.  They live in Littleton, Colorado.

Dori M. Carlson, O.D.

Dori M. Carlson, O.D., of Park River, ND, was first elected to the American Optometric Association Board of Trustees in June 2004, re-elected in 2006, and ascended to the presidency in June 2011. Dr. Carlson was the first woman to serve as AOA president and now serves as Immediate Past President.

In addition to her responsibilities as Immediate Past President, Dr. Carlson serves as Speaker of the House, chair of the AOA Personnel Committee, and is a member of the AOA Agenda and Executive Committees. Dr. Carlson serves as board liaison to the AOA Industry Relations Center, AOAExcel^TM and to affiliate associations in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri, as well as the American Optometric Student Association, the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry, and the University of Missouri, St. Louis, College of Optometry.

During her tenure on the AOA Board, Dr. Carlson served as liaison to many different committees and project teams.  Most notably she was instrumental in developing the School Readiness Summit: Focus on Vision which evolved in to a Joint Statement signed by thirty different organizations calling for a comprehensive eye exam to be the foundation of children's vision care.  This statement was used in AOA's lobbying efforts to define the Essential Pediatric Vision Benefit in Health Care Reform as an eye exam instead of a simple screening.

She also was the first board member to travel to all twenty schools and colleges of Optometry during her terms as President-Elect and President.  Her tour, known as Dori's 20/20 Tour, helped raise awareness of the importance for students to transition their membership from student status to active status upon graduation.  Her mission was to activate students to leave Optometry better than the way they found it.

Prior to her election to the board, Dr. Carlson was the first female president of the North Dakota Optometric Association (NDOA).  She has remained active in her state association whenever asked to help.

Her North Dakota colleagues awarded her the Young Optometrist of the Year Award in 1994 and the Optometrist of the Year Award in 2003.

A 1989 graduate of Pacific University College of Optometry and a former resident at the American Lake and Seattle Veterans Administration hospitals, Dr. Carlson and her husband, Mark Helgeson, O.D., own practices in Park River and Grafton, N.D. where she has continued to see patients when not representing the American Optometric Association.  The doctors have two sons, Seth and Ian.

When she's not traveling for AOA or seeing patients Dr Carlson enjoys cooking dinner for family and friends, skiing - either on snow or water- and spending summer weekends at their lake cabin in Minnesota.