I am honored to be nominated for a second term as senior secretary for Clinical Education for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
I became involved in clinical education at the Academy in my second year in practice as a member of the Clinical Education Committee working on the ProVision interactive CD-ROM project (remember those?) in 1992. I then served on the Refractive Surgery Subcommittee of the Ophthalmic Technology Assessment Committee, which I eventually chaired. I was involved in the Preferred Practice Pattern (PPP) Panel for Cornea, which I later chaired and went on to become the chair of the entire PPP Committee. I worked on the inaugural Basic and Clinical Science Course™ (BCSC®) for Refractive Surgery and became chair. I was also on the Annual Meeting Program Committee for Cornea.
Nine years ago, I became the secretary for Lifelong Learning and Assessment, where I oversaw many of the Academy’s education committees, including the BCSC committee, the Committee for Resident Education and the Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program (OKAP) committee, among others. I regularly met with the physician leadership of these committees to make sure the Academy Board was doing everything possible to support their agendas.
In my role as senior secretary for Clinical Education over the past three years, I oversee not only the committees listed above but also online education, including the Ophthalmic News and Education (ONE®) Network and EyeWiki, EyeNet® magazine and the family of Ophthalmology® journals. Some of our initiatives over the past three years have included developing and launching the Academy’s Ophthalmic Education mobile app (>40,000 users worldwide), developing and launching the BCSC Self-Assessment program and obtaining the Wills Eye Manual for all Academy members for free on the ONE Network and the mobile app.
Although the Academy performs a wide variety of extremely valuable functions, I continue to feel strongly that the backbone of the organization is education. Basic clinical education for residents and fellows, ongoing education for practicing ophthalmologists, education of our staff and finally patient education are critical to the mission of the Academy. I am fortunate to work closely with the fabulous Academy staff, a dedicated group of people without whom the Academy would not be the superb organization it is today.
Clinically, I’ve been in practice as a cornea and refractive surgery specialist at Wills Eye Hospital my entire career — I’m currently the chief of the cornea service. I was in private practice until a few years ago, when I became a full-time employee of Wills Eye. I have a deep-rooted understanding of what clinical education trainees and practicing ophthalmologists require. I also know what it takes to run a successful practice and academic ophthalmology service, including educating our clinical and administrative staff members.
Thank you for your consideration of my candidacy. I look forward to continuing to work with the rest of the Board of Trustees and Committee of Secretaries as we strive to provide the best ophthalmic education in the United States and around the world.