PRIDE IN THE NAME OF...OPTOMETRY

I am writing this as I sit in the Denver airport on my way home from the AOA meeting in Salt Lake City. The meeting felt historic, memorable, and tear-inducing, as Dori Carlson, OD, FAAO became the first woman to become president of the AOA. She gave the Academy an enthusiastic shout out in her first speech as President as she described the representation of women leaders in optometry in 2011, including Tone Garaas-Maurdalen, FAAO, president of the World Council of Optometry; Kirsten North, OD, president of the Canadian Association of Optometrists; and concluding with, as Dori put it, “my friend, Dr. Karla Zadnik, president of the American Academy of Optometry.” I was there because I was proud of her; she seemed proud of me.

I found other evidence of pride about Academy fellowship in connection with the AOA. The majority of the AOA 2011-12 Board of Trustees are Fellows of our Academy. President-Elect Ron Hopping, OD, MPH, FAAO, is a Fellow and Diplomate in the Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses, and Refractive Technologies. An erudite presentation on third party payment was given by Drs. Stephen Montaquila and Bobby Jarrell in the AOA House of Delegates, with their FAAO designations proudly displayed on their talk’s title slide for all to see. LaMar Zigler, OD, MS, FAAO, who I just ran into at the gate in Denver became the 2011-12 Chair of the AOA’s Contact Lens & Cornea Section. In the final session of the House of Delegates, “Good and Welfare” items included descriptions of both the AOA meeting in Chicago in 2012 and the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Academy in Boston.

Then, this morning at 5:30 am in the Salt Lake City airport, I overheard an optometrist I didn’t know describing his practice setting to another optometrist. He was praising the abilities of his two junior partners and, in giving a shorthand version of their resumes, declared, “You know, residency-trained, top of their class, Academy, best of the best. . .”

We are like the pride of lions in The Lion King. We may sometimes have interests that seem to be at odds or competitive in nature, but we are ultimately all engaged for the common good of the optometric profession. It was evident in Salt Lake City and will be equally evident in Boston in October that we are all much, much more similar than different. What is that common ground? Whether Academy Fellow, Academy Diplomate, or a doctor aspiring to those achievements as soon as he or she finds the time to pursue them, we are all proud to be optometrists.
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