Robert Fletcher
Seeing Patients: No
Seeing Patients: No
President-Elect
Rachel A. “Stacey” Coulter, OD, MS received her doctor of optometry degree in 1991 from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), completed a residency in Pediatric Optometry at PCO in 1992, and received an MS degree in education from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in 2012. Currently, Dr. Coulter is a Professor of Optometry at NSU where she teaches in the classroom, clinic, and residency program and is active in clinical research. In 2021, she was named Professor of the Year for NSU’s College of Optometry. Dr. Coulter has a career-long interest in vision and its link to child development and learning. She served as Principal Investigator for the CITT and CITT-ART clinical trials and has completed multiple research studies in pediatric vision and vision in autism.
In the AAO, Dr. Coulter is a Diplomate and past Chair of the Binocular Vision, Perception, & Pediatric Optometry Section. She is an AAOF President’s Circle Member. Dr. Coulter is active in multiple other optometric organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors for COVD and the Advisory Committee of the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health of Prevent Blindness. She also is a Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of Practice. She is a frequent presenter and has lectured throughout the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, China and India. Dr. Coulter is the 2016 recipient of the American Academy of Optometry’s Feinbloom Award for distinguished and significant contribution to clinical excellence.
Immediate Past President
Pete Kollbaum, OD, PhD, FAAO, FBCLA is Professor, Associate Dean for Research, and Director of the Borish Center for Ophthalmic Research at Indiana University. He is also Professor (by courtesy) at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Kollbaum attended Iowa State University studying mechanical engineering. After receiving his OD degree from Indiana University, Dr. Kollbaum worked in a private multidisciplinary practice in Iowa prior to returning to IU where he received a MS degree in Clinical Research and a PhD in Vision Science. He has since been on faculty at IU, where he teaches in the areas of contact lenses and optics. His research interests include lens design, optics, myopia, presbyopia, eye fatigue, and predictive modeling. He has been fortunate to receive funding through the NEI and industry partners to support his research initiatives. Dr. Kollbaum holds membership in AAO, ARVO, BCLA, and ISCLR. Dr. Kollbaum previously received the Irving M. Borish Outstanding Researcher Award from the AAO and as a graduate student was a three-time recipient of a William C. Ezell Fellowship provided by the AAO Foundation. In addition to currently being Past-President of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Optometry Foundation, he has previously served the AAO and AAOF in several other capacities over the last 15 years.
Board Member
Dr. Kathryn Richdale received her BS from the University of Notre Dame and her OD, PhD, and Cornea and Contact Lens Advanced Practice Fellowship from The Ohio State University. She was founding director of the Clinical Vision Research Center, and established the Myopia Control Clinic at the State University of New York College of Optometry before joining the University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) as an Associate Professor in 2017. Dr. Richdale is an attending in the Cornea and Contact Lens Service, oversees the Myopia Management Service, and teaches in both the optometric and graduate programs at UHCO. She conducts research and teaches primarily in the areas of cornea, contact lenses and refractive error. Dr. Richdale earned her Diplomate in the American Academy of Optometry Cornea, Contact Lenses and Refractive Technologies section in 2019, was past Chair of the Research Committee and a member of the Awards Committee, and is currently a board member for our Academy’s journal (Optometry and Vision Science) and Foundation.
Board Member
Dave Sattler, FAAO began his career with Alcon in 1986 as a Sales Representative for the Vision Care Group based out of San Diego, CA. While living in Southern California, he held a number of positions with increasing responsibility including Regional Broker Manager, National Account Manager, and District Sales Manager. In 1991, Dave relocated to Texas and became the Director of National Accounts for Alcon and was later promoted to the Director of Professional Relations. After 28 years of service, Dave retired from Alcon in 2014 as the Director of Academic Development. He is now running his own consulting business and serves on a number of boards including the American Academy of Optometry Foundation and the Southern College of Optometry. He previously served 8 years as a board member for Optometry Cares, the American Optometric Association Foundation. Dave and his wife Denise reside in Colleyville, Texas. They have three grown daughters and three grandchildren.
Board Member
Dr. Loretta Szczotka-Flynn is Professor at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in the Departments of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences as well as Population and Quantitative Health Sciences. She is Director of the Contact Lens Service at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio since 1992. She received her Doctorate of Optometry and Masters of Physiological Optics from The Ohio State University in 1992, and her PhD in Epidemiology from Case Western Reserve University in 2010. She is a Diplomate and Past Chair of the Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses and Refractive Technologies of the American Academy of Optometry and currently serves on the Board of the American Academy of Optometry Foundation. Dr. Szczotka-Flynn serves as an Associate Editor for Eye & Contact Lens and a guest editor for Optometry and Vision Science after having served on the OVS Editorial Board for 12 years. She has authored or co-authored ~80 peer reviewed manuscripts, 12 book chapters, 100 scientific meeting abstracts, and has presented about 200 presentations world-wide.
Board Member
Danne is an A.B.O. optician, N.C.L.E. contact lens fitter, J.C.A.H.P.O. ophthalmic medical assistant and Fellow in the American Academy of Optometry. Her recent corporate focus with Essilor of America was on school support, student and institutional grants, creating and implementing student events and student and faculty education.
Her many awards include the National Federation of Opticianry Schools Person of the Year Award; 3 time Jobson Publishing Most Influential Women in Optical; the ATPO (Association of Technical Personnel in Ophthalmology) President’s Award; JCAHPO (Joint Commission of Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology) Statesmanship Award; Optical Women’s Association Pleiades Award; and was inducted into the National Academy of Opticianry Hall of Fame in 2013.
She is past-president of The National Academy of Opticianry, served on the Board of Directors, Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology Education and Research Foundation, Commission on Opticianry Education, Advisory Board, New York City Technical College, Brooklyn, New York Ophthalmic Dispensing Program, Advisory Board, Essex County College, Newark, New Jersey Ophthalmic Dispensing Program, Advisory Board, International Academy of Sports Vision, Advisory Board, EyeQuest Conference, and was Chairman, Associate Member Relations, Opticians Association of America.
Danne was with Essilor of America for 29 years and retired in 2018. Her most recent position was Director of Professional Education. She is a President’s Circle member of the AAOF.
Board Member
Dr. April Jasper graduated from Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry with highest honors in 1995. Her family of six (awesome husband, two beautiful children, and two dogs) live in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Jasper completed her residency in primary care, ocular disease and contact lenses in Boston, Massachusetts where she also held a position as adjunct professor at NEWENCO. Dr. Jasper has served her patients and colleagues as president of the Florida Optometric Association 2016-2017. She continues to share her knowledge and expertise around the world authoring numerous publications, lecturing and as chief editor of Optometric Management magazine.
Board Member
Dr. Mika Moy graduated from UC Berkeley School of Optometry and completed a residency in Pediatrics and Cornea/Contact Lenses there. She is the Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs at Berkeley Optometry where she teaches the Anterior Segment Disease course and is a clinical instructor as well as a mentor for the Primary Care and Pediatric residents. Her clinical interests include anterior segment disease, pediatrics, and neuro-optometry and she is a frequent lecturer nationally and internationally. She is a Diplomate and current Chair of the Anterior Segment Section and was presented the Michael G. Harris Family Award for excellence in optometric education by the American Academy of Optometry Foundation. She is a Board Member of the California Optometric Association. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, embroidery, and breaking out of escape rooms with her husband and teenage children.
Board Member
Dr. Suresh Viswanthan is currently the Chair of the Department of Biological and Vision Science at the State University of New York College of Optometry where he also serves as the Director of Institutional Research. He earned his Optometry degree from India and subsequently an MS degree from Pacific University and a PhD in Vision Science from the University of Houston. Prior to his move to New York Dr. Viswanathan was a faculty member at the Indiana University School of Optometry. Currently Dr. Viswanathan also serves as the chair of the research pillar of the Academy’s Strategic Plan Implementation Committee and as the Academy’s representative on the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research/Alliance for Eye and Vision Research professional society member council. Previously he has served as the Chair of Academy’s Scientific Program Committee, Vision Science SIG and as a member of the Academy’s Awards and Admittance Committees. As a graduate student, Dr. Viswanathan was awarded the Ezell fellowship for three consecutive years. He became a fellow for the American Academy of Optometry in 2000 and is an ardent supporter of AAOF.
Director At Large, Academy Liaison
Jennifer Coyle is the Dean of the Southern California College of Optometry at Marshall B. Ketchum University. Prior to her current role she served as the Dean of the Pacific University College of Optometry for 12 years. Dr. Coyle, a graduate of Pacific University, completed a residency in contact lenses at that same institution and a Master’s of Science in Clinical Optometry. She team-taught the contact lens didactic, laboratory and clinical curriculum for 14 years at Pacific University. During that time, Dr. Coyle was also in a private group practice in Beaverton, Oregon specializing in contact lenses. She is a contributing editor for Primary Care Optometry News, a Fellow in the American Academy of Optometry and a Diplomate in the Section on Cornea and Contact Lenses.
Dr. Coyle is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Optometry, was named one of Vision Monday’s 50 Most Influential Women in Optical in 2006 and received the 2010 Clarence G. Carkner Oregon Optometrist of the Year award. She has been actively involved in the AAO Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses and Refractive Technologies for the past eighteen years, most recently as the Section Historian, and served on the AAO Lectures and Workshops Committee for six years. Dr. Coyle is committed to the advancement of the profession of optometry, and was elected the first woman President of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) for two terms (2013-2015) and for five years was the Chair of the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association Advocacy Committee.
President
Wendy Harrison, OD, PhD, FAAO, is a graduate from the Indiana University (IU) School of Optometry where she was the first person to earn a joint OD, MS degree in 4 years. She completed her residency in Cornea, Contact Lenses also at IU and a PhD in Vision Science in 2011 from University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Harrison is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry where her clinical and research interest involves electrophysiology in diabetes and other retinal diseases. She is a member of the AAOs Fellow’s Doing Research SIG Steering Committee. Dr. Harrison is an AAOF Presidents Circle Member and two time recipient of the Foundation’s prestigious William C. Ezell Fellowship and was also honored to receive the George Mertz Contact Lens Residency Award.
Board Member
Dr. Carl Spear completed his undergraduate education at Western Kentucky University and is a 1991 graduate of the University of Alabama School of Optometry at Birmingham. Additionally, Dr. Spear completed a Residency in Primary Care Optometry/Ocular Disease at Northeastern State University College of Optometry, in Tahlequah Oklahoma and earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Auburn University.
Dr. Spear founded and was owner/operator from 1997-2016 of both Sight and Sun Eyeworks and Panhandle Vision Institute, a 14 doctor vertically integrated Optometric/Ophthalmology practice. While growing his own practices, Dr. Spear also worked in a variety of industry settings including:
Currently, Dr. Spear serves as Senior Vice President of Eyecare, Luxottica North America. In addition to lecturing, writing and consulting, Dr. Spear is also active in the following organizations:
In addition to his career in eye care, Dr. Spear has served 39 years in the United States Armed Forces (24 Army and 13 Air Force). Currently, Colonel Spear is serving as the Commander of the 403rd ASTS at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Sharpe received her Doctor of Optometry degree from the Indiana University School of Optometry. She completed her residency in ocular disease at the Veteran’s hospital in Portland, Oregon affiliated with OHSU and Pacific University. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and board certified by the American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry. Since 2004 she has served as medical staff at Chinle Hospital, a Navajo Area Indian Health Service facility in Arizona. She is a recipient of the Lester Caplan Award recognizing accomplishments for the Public Health Service. She is committed to serving within her profession and has held various national leadership roles as a national board examiner, national advisory group (OPAG) member for the Indian Health Service, and she is currently a Vice Chair on the admissions committee for the American Academy of Optometry as well as a board member of the American Academy of Optometry Foundation. She has held Adjunct Clinical Professor positions at the Pacific University College of Optometry, the Southern California College of Optometry, The Ohio State University, and Indiana University. Outside of her optometric duties Dr. Sharpe is involved in clinical informatics where she supports management of the electronic medical record as well as telemedicine initiatives.
Director At Large, Research Committee Liason
Daniel Roberts serves as the Research Committee Chair for the American Academy of Optometry. He is a Professor at the Illinois College of Optometry where he is active in clinical instruction, lecturing, and research. He received his OD degree from Indiana University and completed a Residency in Hospital Based Primary Care Optometry at the Danville, IL VA Medical Center. He holds an MS degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and completed his PhD training in Public Health Sciences/Epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He served many years as a course instructor in epidemiologic methods at the UIC School of Public Health and held adjunct appointment at the UIC Department of Ophthalmology. His primary research interests involve glaucoma and diagnostic iris imaging. He has actively served other organizations including the National Board of Examiners in Optometry, the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education, and the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry.
Board Member
Kerry Giedd, OD, MS, FAAO is a founding partner of Eola Eyes, a private group practice in Orlando, Florida, specializing in contact lenses. She graduated with honors from The Ohio State University College of Optometry in 2000 and became a fellow in the American Academy of Optometry in 2003. She serves on the Board of the American Academy of Optometry Foundation and is a former member of the Academy’s Membership Committee. Dr. Giedd has served as a clinical investigator, consultant, and/or speaker for many companies within the vision care industry, including Bausch + Lomb, CooperVision, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Alcon, Lentechs, Visus, Eyenovia, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Bruder Healthcare, and Allergan. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the publication Primary Care Optometry News and serves on the Board of the Central Florida Lions Club’s Project Right to Sight. Her practice has been nationally and locally recognized as the recipient of many awards, including CooperVision’s Best Practices Award (2015). She has also received many individual accolades, including being named among the nation’s most innovative optometrists (“PCON 250” 2016), one of the most influential women in optical (Vision Monday 2016), and the Small Business Administration’s Women in Business Champion of the Year for the state of Florida (2012). She partners with many local outreach programs to provide eye care for those in need and mentors medical students in her role as an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. She leads eye care missions to the Dominican Republic and has worked tirelessly to develop an optometry clinic at Grace Medical Home, which provides health care to uninsured residents of her home county.
Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Walline the Associate Dean for Research at The OSU College of Optometry, where he teaches Introduction to Primary Care Procedures to optometry students and Clinical Research Design and Basics of Graduate Work to graduate students. Dr. Walline is a Research Diplomate in the Cornea, Contact Lens, and Refractive Technologies Section. Dr. Walline served on the Communications Committee, he was vice chair of the Scientific Program Committee, and he chaired the Faculty-Student Liaison Committee. Since serving as the National Liaison to the Academy for the American Optometric Student Association, Dr. Walline has passionately served the Academy because he understands the importance of educating optometrists through innovative science and cooperative fellowship.
Immediate Past President
Barbara Caffery is a Toronto optometrist who has worked in a group practice since her 1977 graduation from the New England College of Optometry. She is also a member of the University Health Network Multidisciplinary Sjogren’s Syndrome Clinic. She spends her days doing comprehensive eye care. Her areas of expertise are dry eye disease and contact lenses. She completed her Masters of Science degree in Nutrition in 1987. She completed her PhD programme in Vision Science at the University of Waterloo in 2009 upon defending her thesis entitled Sjogren’s Syndrome: A Clinical and Biochemical Analysis. She has done several clinical trials in dry eye disease and has published widely in the areas of contact lenses, dry eye and Sjogren’s Syndrome. She is currently the Immediate Past President of the Board of the American Academy of Optometry.
Board Member
Dr. Chris Wilmer attended the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry. She completed a residency program in Primary Care Optometry at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. She is currently the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and a Health Sciences Clinical Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Optometry. She has been involved in residency education throughout her academic career as the Chief Mentor of the Primary Care and Contact Lens residency program and currently serves as the Director of Affiliate Residency Programs. Dr. Wilmer lectures locally, regionally and nationally on a number of topics. She has been involved with section leadership within the AAO and has previously served as the Chair of the Anterior Segment Section and she most recently served as the Diplomate Written Exam Chair. She has been involved in the National Board of Examiners Part 1 Committee and Council for many years and currently is a member of the Part III Exam Development Committee.
Board Member
Dr. Mick graduated from the University of Michigan in 1997 and the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry in 2001. He completed an ocular disease optometric residency at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in 2002. Dr. Mick is a Staff Optometrist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center where he is the current Residency Coordinator and Co-Consultant to the national VA Optometry Service for VISN 21. He has previously been a Consultant for the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education and an Examiner for the National Board of Examiners in Optometry. Dr. Mick has served on the Membership Committee, Scientific Program Committee, and Awards Committee of the American Academy of Optometry. He is a former Associate Editor for the Academy’s journal Optometry and Vision Science. Dr. Mick is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry.
Board Member
Jennifer Coyle is the Dean of the Southern California College of Optometry at Marshall B. Ketchum University. Prior to her current role she served as the Dean of the Pacific University College of Optometry for 12 years. Dr. Coyle, a graduate of Pacific University, completed a residency in contact lenses at that same institution and a Master’s of Science in Clinical Optometry. She team-taught the contact lens didactic, laboratory and clinical curriculum for 14 years at Pacific University. During that time, Dr. Coyle was also in a private group practice in Beaverton, Oregon specializing in contact lenses. She is a contributing editor for Primary Care Optometry News, a Fellow in the American Academy of Optometry and a Diplomate in the Section on Cornea and Contact Lenses.
Dr. Coyle is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Optometry, was named one of Vision Monday’s 50 Most Influential Women in Optical in 2006 and received the 2010 Clarence G. Carkner Oregon Optometrist of the Year award. She has been actively involved in the AAO Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses and Refractive Technologies for the past eighteen years, most recently as the Section Historian, and served on the AAO Lectures and Workshops Committee for six years. Dr. Coyle is committed to the advancement of the profession of optometry, and was elected the first woman President of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) for two terms (2013-2015) and for five years was the Chair of the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association Advocacy Committee.
President-Elect
Dr. Susan Cotter, a Professor of Optometry at the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO) at Marshall B. Ketchum University, is a pediatric optometrist and clinician scientist with primary research interests related to clinical management strategies for amblyopia, strabismus, convergence insufficiency, and childhood refractive error. She is the co-Chair of the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG), a clinical research network of pediatric optometrists and ophthalmologists funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Eye Institute (NEI) who perform clinical investigations related to pediatric eye disorders. Dr. Cotter has served in leadership positions for several large-scale NEI-funded studies – the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS), the Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Refractive Error (CLEERE), the Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial (CITT), and the CITT-Attention & Reading Trial (CITT-ART).
A former member of the National Advisory Committee for the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health (NCCVEH), Dr. Cotter recently served as the Co-Chair of the Public Health & Disparities Research Panel for the NEI’s Strategic Plan for the Future (2021-2025). She is the President-elect of the American Academy of Optometry and serves on the Scientific Bureau of the World Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (WSPOS).
Sue received her OD from the Illinois College of Optometry, completed a residency in Children’s Vision at SCCO, and received her MS in Clinical and Biomedical Investigations from the USC’s Keck School of Medicine. She is a Diplomate in Binocular Vision, Perception, and Pediatric Optometry. A recipient of numerous teaching awards and editor of the textbook Clinical Applications of Prisms, Sue is a former Ezell Fellow and the 2019 recipient of the Glenn A Fry Lecture Award from the American Academy of Optometry.
President
Timothy T. McMahon, OD, FAAO graduated from Illinois College of Optometry in 1980, and completed a residency at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center in 1981. From 1981 to 2010 Dr. McMahon was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and currently holds the rank of Professor of Ophthalmology. From 2010 through 2011 he served as the Associate Director for Clinical Affairs, Professor of Optometry and Optometrist-in-Chief at the University of Waterloo, School of Optometry in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He returned to the UIC Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences in late 2011 and holds the rank of Professor of Ophthalmology. In 2013 he received Board Certification in Medical Optometry by the American Board of Certification in Medical Optometry. In 2014 he was appointed Vice Chair for Optometry in the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at UIC.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and is a Diplomate in the Section on Cornea, Contact Lenses and Refractive Technologies. He previously served as Chair of the Academy’s Research Committee and Vice Chair of the Academy’s Scientific Program Committee and for 10 years served as a member of the AOA’s Council on Research. Dr. McMahon was appointed to the American Academy Optometric Foundation Board in 2002 and served as its treasurer until 2008 when he was elected to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Optometry. In 2020 he was elected President of the Academy the office which he currently serves.
Dr. McMahon was the Secretary of the LRS Committee of the World Council of Optometry from 2012 to 2016 following which he was elected President of the World Optometry Foundation. For more than 10 years he served on the editorial board for the journals Cornea and Eye and Contact Lens. In 2000 the National Academies of Practice named him a Distinguished Clinical Fellow. Dr. McMahon has been an investigator or principal investigator for several NIH and VA funded research projects, including the CLEK Study, where he served on the Executive Committee. From 2001 to 2005 he served on the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel and remains a consultant. He has published widely and has lectured nationally and internationally. His interests include contact lenses, corneal topography and anterior segment diseases.