Southern College of Optometry recently awarded its lifetime achievement award to Norma K. Bowyer, OD, a 1977 SCO graduate.
Dr. Bowyer is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a member of the Armed Forces Optometric Society. She has received a number of awards and honors, including the American Optometric Foundation’s Ezell Fellowship and American Optometric Association’s (AOA’s) Keyperson of the Year Award. In 2013, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Public Health Association’s Vision Care Section.
Bowyer has served as director of off-campus clinical programs at Southern California College of Optometry and was a practicum coordinator for the Masters of Public Health program that she helped shepherd through to accreditation at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center. She was also instrumental in supporting vision and eye health care-related initiatives in the nation’s Healthy People program coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She continues to consult and work on plans for Health People 2020. She was also recently re-elected as a Governing Councilor for the Vision Care Section of the American Public Health Association as well.
Bowyer serves on a number of state and national boards, advisory panels, and is active in the National Rural Health Association. As an American Optometric Association Keyperson, Dr. Bowyer joined Dr. Glen Steele from SCO’s faculty in helping secure Congressional support for the InfantSEE program. That support marked the first direct funding ever from Congress for optometry.