Centennial
President’s Medal Recipients
Many people have been part of the proud history of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) and Salus University. Alumni, faculty, and friends of the College helped establish PCO as a pioneer and leader in the field of optometric education and the profession of optometry. The following people - highlighted on Medal Mondays - were honored on May 20, 1995 at the 75th Anniversary Gala Celebration for their outstanding contributions to the College and the field of optometry and vision care.
During the weekend of the Centennial Gala Celebration, additional alumni, faculty, and friends were honored.
Audrey J. Smith, PhD (University of Pennsylvania, ’90)
CLVT, COMS
Dr. Smith originally joined the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) faculty in the 1970s as a low vision and orientation and mobility specialist. Soon after, she began working in the William Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation Center, currently housed at Salus University’s optometric clinical facility, The Eye Institute. In addition to writing much of the material utilized in her field over the course of her career, she also led the Department of Graduate Studies in Vision Impairment, and inspired the development of the Blindness and Low Vision Studies programs. Now housed within the University’s College of Education and Rehabilitation (CER), Dr. Smith also served as dean of CER for eight years from 2008 when the University was established up until 2016.
Under her leadership, more than $40 million in grant funding was received, an accomplishment she attributed to teamwork and working with her talented and passionate staff. Her successes in fundraising have included several national personnel preparation and research grants, and State Prevention of Blindness grants, which have served countless underserved communities in the Philadelphia area and provided many additional clinical experiences for the University’s students.
Currently holding the rank of professor emeritus at Salus, Dr. Smith is internationally recognized for her publications and professional presentations/workshops and state training programs across the country. At Salus, she has won numerous Teacher of the Year Awards and was more recently honored with the University’s Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2017.
