NECO Faculty and Alumni Honored by AAOF

The American Academy of Optometry Foundation (AAOF) announced their 2017 awards to recognize great accomplishments and contributions to the field of optometry. The AAOF annually distributes awards, grants, fellowships, and scholarships to graduate students, optometry students, residents, and faculty to recognize their achievements. This year, several faculty and alumni from New England College of Optometry (NECO) were among those selected.

Donald O. Mutti,  OD, PhD, FAAO, Awards Committee Chair noted, “This year’s nominees were wonderful examples of dedication to vision research, vision care, education, and improvement of the visual welfare of all. It was a very difficult task selecting awardees from this list of accomplished people.”

Eli Peli, MSc, OD ’73, FAAO

Eli Peli

Adjunct NECO Professor Eli Peli, MSc, OD ’73, FAAO, will receive the Charles F. Prentice Medal and Lecture Award. The annual award is presented to a distinguished scientist or clinician scientist for their research contributions in advancing knowledge in vision science throughout their career.

Dr. Peli is a senior scientist and the Moakley Scholar in Aging Eye Research at the Schepens Eye Research Institute. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Vision Science at NECO and serves as a graduate faculty mentor for students in the Graduate Research Studies Program.

Mitchell Scheiman, OD ‘75, PhD, FAAO

Mitchell Scheiman

Mitchell Scheiman, OD ‘75, PhD, FAAO, was selected for the Glenn A. Fry Award and Lecture. The AAOF explains that the award is “given annually to a distinguished scientist or clinician scientist in recognition of the quality, significance, impact, and relevance to optometry of his or her current research contributions.”

Dr. Scheiman is Dean of Research and Director of Graduate Programs at Salus University. His research efforts have been related to vision therapy and binocular vision. He is currently the national Study Chair of the NEI-funded, multi-center, Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial – Attention and Reading (CITT-ART).

Lynette Johns, OD ‘04, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA

Lynette Johns

Lynette Johns, OD ‘04, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA, was chosen to receive the Founders’ Award from the AAOF. The Founders award is given in honor of the Academy Fellows who founded the AAO Contact Lens Section. The award is given to “an individual, group, or company who has made an outstanding contribution to the clinical aspect of the art of science of contact lens fitting.”

Dr. Johns is an adjunct assistant professor with the Contact Lens Service at New England College of Optometry. She speaks nationally and internationally on specialty contact lenses, irregular corneas and severe ocular surface disease.

Laura Goldberg, OD ‘16, MS

Laura Goldberg

Recent graduate Laura Goldberg, OD ‘16, MS was selected for the Julius F. Neumueller Award in Optics for her work submitting a first-authored original research paper while still an optometry student. Read more about her award.

Award recipients will be recognized Friday, October 13, 2017 at the awards ceremony during Academy 2017 conference in Chicago. For and overview of the awards, scholarships and grants, visit the AAOF website.