- Student-centered initiatives promote optometry careers
- 1 year strong, Myopia Collective advancing a new standard of care
- Elevating optometry by advocating for dry eye patients
- Congratulations to the AOA’s 2025 award winners
- Inspiring optometry’s next generation
- A passion for grassroots
- Bringing the optometric community together
- Optometry finds voice in influential society
- Remembering Debbie Hettler
- Part of the solution
- ‘Changing the face of how we practice’
- On the radar: Emerging technologies
- Lessons in staff retention from a 50-year-practicing paraoptometric
- Remembering Virgil Deering
- Understanding the past to inform a better future
- 5 ways to center patient care
- AOA members help Olympians gain an edge
- ‘Advocacy is our history and our future’
- Putting the spotlight on optometry’s stars
- Tennessee Welcomes You to Optometry’s Meeting
- Member in Focus - Dr. Thuy Tran
- Intentional leadership
- Congratulations to the AOA’s 2024 award winners
- 115 years of family eye care
- Optometric foundation’s track record leads to $2.5 million grant for children’s eye care in Ohio
- Honoring Charlotte Ferris’ dedication to optometry
- Representation matters in optometry
- Remembering a true friend of optometry: Patricia Hopping
- AOA’s prestigious leadership program graduates another class
- Inspiring the next gen of contact lens leaders
- Seeing potential
- Taking eye care advocacy to a global scale
- Embracing the journey
- Born to serve: Active duty paraoptometric professionals provide critical care
- ‘Raising the ceiling’
- Honoring the profession’s finest at Optometry’s Meeting 2023
- Why proper documentation is vital
- Change agent
- The power of ‘yes’
- AOA immediate past president: Our biggest challenges
- Optometry through Bubba’s eyes
- Congratulations to the AOAs 2023 award winners
- Andrew Kemp AOA’s 2022 Educator of the Year transitions students from talking in question marks to talking in period
- Distinguishing service
- Successes in diabetes care
- Shantia-Hinderlider-humanitarian-heart
- Glen Steele honored in retirement
- Art Epstein
- Next-level-Loretta-Eriks-CPOT
- Davidoff award
- Leader to leader
- Chicago things to do
- The next generation of optometrys leaders
- 2022 Hall of Fame
- Sullins Award Winner
- A great fit
- Ukrainian refugees find succor in AOA doctor executive director
- Candidates announce bids for Board of Trustees elections
- annual award winners
- women in optometry
- Care close to home
- Emerging leader
- How one doctor lives a life of service
- Jerald Combs Obit
- Connecting with patients as paraoptometrics
- Building relationships
- Persistence pays off
- Advocacy from academia
- Women make giant strides
- AOA Board of Trustee Resolutions 2020
- C Clayton Powell O.D. Obit
- James A Boucher Obit
- Irving Bennett O.D. leaves legacy
- Janet Millis finding her place
- Changing of the guard 2020
- AOA 2020-21 election
- AOA doctors frontline care
- 2020 hall of fame inductees
- members carry the message 2020EyeExam into the future
- When student becomes teacher
- Jeni Kohn Vision Quest Young Optometrist Year
- AOA Board resolves advocacy public awareness in New Year
- nominate Hall of Fame
- AOA honors active-duty sacrifice of Army doctor of optometry
- From small-town to big deal
- AOA Board of Trustee Resolutions 2019
- How doctors of optometry contribute to Air Force mission
- Kneib longtime AOA leader leaves legacy
- Morrow Optometric Family
- AOA member has a super role for NFL team
- Taking pride in what you do
- Longtime AOA volunteer member Frank Fontana OD dies
- a profession of their own
- Doctor of optometry on MasterChef
- Hawaii doctor takes volcano in stride
- A patient person
- Pick Up the Pieces
- Removing the barriers
- Another New Year happily practicing optometry
- 101 years all in the family
- Doctor Levin Obit
- Family tree blooms with doctors of optometry
- Reaping what we sow
- AOA offers condolences to family of Richard L Wallingford Jr OD
- Hollywoods eye experts
- Black History Month AOA doctors rise to occasions
- Longtime AOA California optometric leader and educator dies
- Civil rights leader remembered as heroic and selfless by one doctor of optometry
- All in the family The Castellanos
- All in the Family The Botwins
- War stories Retired doctor receives Frances highest military honor
- All in the family Three generations of eye care
- Opening doors
- Optometrys Family Portrait
- Optometrys eyewitness
- Teachable moments
- doctor of optomtery stays focused in Ferguson Missouri
- Opticals green makeover hits primetime TV
Members of the profession honored at Optometry's Meeting®
June 20, 2022
The profession’s premier meeting ended Saturday in Chicago after four days of contemporary education, impactful networking, professional leadership, and all-around fun. See what you missed.
Tag(s): Inside Optometry, Member Spotlight
Optometry’s Meeting® bade farewell to ‘sweet home, Chicago,’ on Saturday with a celebration of the profession, marking the conclusion of a momentous 2022 conference.
“I am blown away that nearly 4,000 of us have taken over Chicago during the past few days, doing what we do best—connecting and advancing this great profession of ours,” AOA President James P. DeVleming, O.D., told attendees during the closing Celebration of Optometry. And “take over Chicago” Optometry’s Meeting did.
As of Saturday’s close, the city’s convention and visitors’ bureau, Choose Chicago, estimated that Optometry’s Meeting had an $8.8 million economic impact over the course of the four-day event at McCormick Place Convention Center. But Chicago wasn’t the only winner from Optometry’s Meeting. In addition to the contemporary education and unparalleled networking opportunities afforded by the profession’s premiere event, Optometry’s Meeting honored the truly outstanding accomplishments of colleagues.
National Optometry Hall of Fame inductees
Since 1998, the National Optometry Hall of Fame, administered by Optometry Cares®—The AOA Foundation, has recognized and honored doctors of optometry who are luminaries of the profession and imparted long-lasting contributions to optometry. On Thursday, attendees gathered during the AOA Awards and National Optometry Hall of Fame ceremony to recognize inductees of the Class of 2022, including:
- Joseph Barr, O.D., M.S.
- Edward Bennett, O.D.
- Charles Brownlow, O.D.
- Don Williamson, O.D. (posthumous)
Read more about the 2022 Hall of Fame inductees.
AOA Advocacy Awards
- Laura Suppa, O.D., of West Virginia, received the AOA Federal Advocacy Award.
- Amber Dunn, O.D., of Oregon, received the AOA Media Advocacy Award.
- Steve Eiss, O.D., of Pennsylvania, received the AOA Payer Advocacy Award.
- The Colorado Optometric Association and Virginia Optometric Association both received AOA State Advocacy Awards.
AOA President’s Awards
- Rick Gadd
- François Couillard
- Dinah Bevington, J.D.
- Bryan Markowitz
- Charlotte Nekota
- Morris Berman, O.D.
- Nhung Brandenburg, O.D.
- Bryan Wolynski, O.D.
- Lewis Reich, O.D., Ph.D.
- John Heltsley, O.D.
- Lori Roberts Hauser, O.D.
- Ryan Funai
- Eric Botts, O.D.
- Mamie Chan, O.D.
- Donna Ellinger, O.D.
- Hilary Hawthorne, O.D.
- Keith Kerns, Esq.
- Heather Anderson, O.D., Ph.D.
- Edward “Larry” Jones, O.D.
- Jason Compton, O.D.
- Devin Sasser, O.D.
- Breanne McGhee, O.D.
- Dale Lervick, O.D.
- Samuel Pierce, O.D.
- Joe Ellis, O.D.
- James Wachter, O.D.
- David Cockrell, O.D.
- Artis Beatty, O.D.
- Andrew Cook, O.D.
- Jeffrey Strand, O.D.
- Bo Keeney, Jr.
- Bruce Keeney, Sr.
- Viola Kanevsky, O.D.
- Bob Charles
- Amanda Dellinger, O.D.
- Emily Eisenhower, O.D.
- David Ciccone, O.D.
- Marina Su, O.D.
- Thomas Cote, M.B.A.
- Lisa Gontarek, O.D.
- Amanda Umlandt, O.D.
- Howard Braverman, O.D.
- Kurt Steele, O.D.
AOSA Optometry Student Bowl™ XXXI crowns a champion
Ashley Olson of the Midwestern University, Arizona College of Optometry, lifted the crystal trophy high above a raucous Radius Chicago after another AOSA Optometry Student Bowl™ powered by EssilorLuxottica. Gabby Crocket of Southern College of Optometry placed second, while Emmy Tian of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry, and Sakshi Vasiu of the State University of New York College of Optometry, tied for third place, in the high-stakes, high-speed test of optometric knowledge. The Ohio State University College of Optometry was awarded with the competition’s Spirit Award.
Chicago’s 5K, 1-mile Run/Walk winners
Chicago’s downtown skyline and Lake Michigan’s deep-blue waters served as the backdrop to the Optometry Cares—The AOA Foundation 5K Run & Walk, generously supported by Allergan, Neurolens and Volk. This year’s top 5K female finishers included: Kaitlyn Duran, Rachel Crawford, and Vera Lindhorst. This year’s top 5K male finishers included: Jacob Saxon, Trevor Phillips and Joshua Queener.
View the full Optometry Cares 5K race results.
Follow Optometry’s Meeting on social media
Relive the excitement and see what you missed from the profession’s premier meeting in Chicago—read daily news updates at aoa.org/news or join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #OM2022 and see the buzz on our social wall.