We are the (Optometry) Champions

Highlights from Optometry’s Meeting® 2021, the annual meeting of the American Optometric Association (AOA) and American Optometric Student Association (AOSA), prove it was a banner year for the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University. Culminating in some truly memorable moments, by the conclusion of the event, PCO/Salus achieved two National Optometry Hall of Fame inductions, a student quiz bowl championship and a 5K victory.

Optometry’s Meeting is where doctors, optometric professionals, students and industry come together to further the optometry profession. The event provides engaging education and networking opportunities for doctors and optometry professionals. For 22 years, the National Optometry Hall of Fame has recognized and honored doctors of optometry who have made significant and enduring contributions to the optometric profession.

After a two-year delay due to a scheduling conflict and then the COVID-19 pandemic, Salus University president Michael H. Mittelman, OD ‘80, MPH, FAAO, FACHE, was finally enshrined in the Hall of Fame alongside 2020 inductee Satya Verma, OD ‘75, FAAO, DPNAP, Diplomate. Both Drs. Mittelman and Verma were officially recognized during the optometry profession premiere event, which recently reconvened in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Mittelman’s remarkable career started in the U.S. Navy after he received his Doctor of Optometry degree from PCO/Salus in 1980. In 1989, he was the first optometrist designated as an aerospace physiologist and used his extensive training to develop the Navy Aerospace Optometry program, earning him his aeromedical Wings of Gold. After serving 33 years in the Navy, Dr. Mittelman retired and began his position as Salus president in 2013.

Dr. Verma, associate professor and director of Externship Programs, Optometry, received his initial optometric training at the School of Optometry, Gandhi Eye Hospital in Aligarh, India, in 1964. In the early 1970s, he came to the U.S. and served as an associate in optometry at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry before he transferred to PCO/Salus, where he has been involved in academia for more than four decades. He earned his Doctor of Optometry from PCO/Salus in 1975. The recipient of numerous accolades and awards, Dr. Verma was selected as a Delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging and for a Primary Care Health Policy Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) – one of only four optometrists ever selected for the honor.

In other events from Optometry’s Meeting, Tyler Lesko ‘22ODtook home the AOSA Optometry Student Bowl championship for PCO/Salus. The competition put college rivalries center stage as optometry schools battled to be the smartest, loudest and most creative during the 30th Optometry Student Bowl, powered by Essilor. Lesko, no stranger to hard work and high pressure as a third-year optometry student, competed against students from 23 other schools in the high-speed, high-stakes test of optometric knowledge. The last time the coveted crystal trophy made it back to PCO/Salus was in 2015 when Nicole Rist, OD ’16, won in Seattle, Washington.

Additionally, Dr. Mittelman and Alissa Coyne, OD ‘10, Resident ’11, FAAO, assistant professor at PCO/Salus and staff optometrist at The Eye Institute (TEI), participated in an early morning race while visiting the Mile High City. Dr. Coyne and Tanis Mittelman, wife of Dr. Mittelman, finished as the top two runners in each age group at the AOA Optometry Cares 5K.

After a year that has proven to be like no other for not only the optometry profession, but all healthcare professions, PCO/Salus endured and prevailed once again, higher than before.