The 46th National Optometric Association (Eye Care Essentials: What’s New?) Convention convened in the Washington D.C. area on July 23-27, 2014. This highly anticipated meeting did not disappoint. Each year, the NOA arranges a vision related community service project in the host community. Vision screenings, exams and patient visual education were provided to approximately 70 people at a local church on the VSP Mobile Unit. Because of the proximity to where health care policy is crafted, Dr. Stephanie Johnson-Brown, NOA President, Dr. Paul Harris, Optometric Extension Program President, and other NOA/NOSA leaders spent time on Capitol Hill with the Congressional Black Caucus informing the lawmakers of the need for mandatory eye examinations for children prior to entering school and inclusion of optometric professionals in the National Health Services Corps. The NOA Convention mobile app sponsored by HOYA was freshly rolled out for convenient access to conference events and updates. Over 14 hours of professional CE was offered with topics ranging from corneal cross-linking therapy to ocular side effects of medications. Numerous corporate sponsors and exhibitors such as Alcon, Allergan, OEP and Good-lite Company attended this year’s convention. NOA Corporate Partnership has increased by thirty percent this year alone. This was also the inaugural year for the independent NOSA conference schedule, which was well received by NOSA Members. The closing banquet was a true gem!  The keynote speaker, Dr. Robert L. Wright (1960 OSUCO graduate), gave his address with a touching personal story highlighting his journey through optometry school, business owner, civil rights activist, and owner of a multimillion dollar company. Dr. Vera Burns was named NOA Optometrist of the Year. Essilor USA received the NOA Founders Award. The Ohio State University College of Optometry was named NOA Chapter of Year for its continued focus on increasing diversity in optometry. This year’s conference was another remarkable meeting! 

Make plans to attend the 2015 annual convention next July in Hilton Head, SC, where Pediatric Eye Care is the focus.

This year continued the recent growth for NORA.  We again broke attendance records and enjoyed having so many special people attend the meeting.  This year the attendance broke our previous records as we reached 274.  This included 40 students attending from 15 schools.   NORA continues to offer top notch education on the clinical skills side (Skills 1, 2 and Advanced) as well as the general program.  This year the Advanced clinical skills course was hallmarked by a day of IMPACT training and the second day was how to implement it into clinical practice.  We were led by Deann Fitzgerald, OD and her team including Shannon McGuire and Becky Moran.

At the meeting our new Executive Director was introduced, Angela Gosling of Denver, CO.  Through a lengthy interview process Angela was selected and we’re so glad she’s become part of the NORA family.  We look forward to great things from her energy and efforts.

General Conference Receives Rave Reviews

The general conference started Friday night with a preconference presentation by June Chiang,OD on “Eye Spirals-Integration of the Neurosensory Systems to Enhance and Promote Neuroplasticity”.  It was an excellent workshop on helping patients to explore integration of multiple systems in terms of grounding and movement. 

The first day of the meeting was highlighted by Cavin Balaster, a head trauma survivor who spoke on, “Lights, Coma, Action ! – Adventures in Brain Injury”.  He told a fantastic story based about his head injury and his work with Denise Smith, OD in Austin, TX.  Other speakers included Elizabeth Stuller, MD  who is a physician with the Amen Clinics.  Her lecture was on “Psycho-Neuro Immunology – Clniical Application of an Emerging Field in Medicine”.   The afternoon speakers were on Management of Visual Field deficits  with David Lewerenz,OD on “Management of Hemianopsia with Prism and Visual Rehabilitation” and Imelda Llanos, MS, OTR/L on “Rehabilitation Strategies in the Management of Visual Field Deficits”.

The second day was headed by Jack Richman,OD who spoke on “Everything I Didn’t Know About Pupil Assessment”.  The next presentation was done by Jason Mihalik,PhD,CAT(C),ATC titled, “A Vision of Concussions: What they are, traditional treatment and the implications for innovation”. 

The meeting was completed with a presentation by Barry Kavanaugh, OD titled, “Understanding, Identifying, and Remediating Visual Multi-Tasking Dysfunction.”

The annual NORA installation and banquet was headed by the introduction of the new board and presentation of awards.  Tracy Ammann,OD served as Master of Ceremonies.

2014-2016 NORA Board
President - Curtis Baxstrom,OD,FNORA
Vice President – Susan Durham,OD
Secretary – Susan Daniel,OD
Treasurer – Tracy Ammann,OD
Immediate Past President – Carl Garbus,OD
Council Members – Jenny Garbus, Nova McNally

All of NORA and the board would like to send our thanks and gratitude to Carl Garbus,OD who completed two terms as our President for the past four years.













At the annual Awards Banquet the following were honored for their contributions to NORA and the area of Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation.

Completion of Fellow, Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (FNORA)
            Briana Larson,OD
            Jill Schultz,OD

Founding Fathers Award
             Willard Bleything,OD

Advancement of Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Award
            Cavin Balaster and Denise Smith,OD

Advancement of Sciences Award
            Jason Mihalik,PhD,CAT(C),ATC

William and Diane Ludlam Educators Award
            Barry Tannen,OD

President’s Award
            Don Fong,OD
            Jenny Garbus

Gus Forkiotis Student/Resident Award
            Grace Dumayas,OD,L Major – for her poster, “Pupillary Light Reflex and Eye Movement: Clinical Tools for Early Detection of mTBI/Concussion”

2014 Student Service Award
            Jonathan Hall

The next NORA Conference will be in Denver, Colorado.  Please mark your calendars now for May 14-17, 2015.  For information check the website at www.nora.cc .

Ernest V. Loewenstein, PhD, OD
Professor of Optometry; New England College of Optometry 

Dr. Coulter was the Behavioral Scholar in Residence at NECO from April 2 through 6, 2014.  Dr. Coulter is a faculty member at Nova Southeastern University where she divides her time between academic and clinical duties.  Dr. Coulter’s special clinical interest is in the optometric treatment of children with autism; she is director of the Nova Southeastern University’s Vision and Autism Service.

The Behavioral Scholar in Residence is an annual program at NECO in which a distinguished behavioral optometrist is invited to visit the College for a period of five days to bring a new perspective to the students and faculty. The duties include presentations to the students, participation in a symposium on a subject of interest to the Scholar, and a CE lecture to the general optometric community and to such outside professionals as may be interested in the subject.

Dr. Coulter is a graduate of Pennsylvania College of Optometry (now Salus University).  She did a residency in Pediatric Optometry and Vision Therapy at PCO. She also holds a Master of Science in Exceptional Student Education from Nova Southeastern University.  Dr. Coulter is a fellow of COVD, and a diplomate in binocular vision, perception and pediatric optometry.  She has served as chair of the Binocular Vision, Perception and Pediatric Optometry sections of the American Academy of Optometry and the Florida Optometric Association Children’s Vision Committee.

Dr. Coulter participated in a symposium organized by Dr. Richard Laudon of NECO, titled “Autism, Its Impact on Families and Society.” Other participants included internist, an occupational therapist, and a young woman with personal experience of living on the autism spectrum.  Each participant brought a personal story of their experience with the implications of autism to the individual and family.

On Sunday April 6, Dr. Coulter presented a CE program of two lectures titled “Is Your Practice Ready to Care for the Patient with Autism?” and “Providing Vision Therapy to Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder.”  The first lecture covered a description of some aspects of autism, how the ocular and refractive conditions differ between autism and non-autism, and suggestions for structuring the eye examination for patients on the autism spectrum.  The second lecture provided information garnered from Dr. Coulter’s experience in the University Vision and Autism clinic on the practical aspects of vision therapy with children on the spectrum, including some videos of how children act in the training room.

This successful visit by Dr. Coulter was enhanced by her presentations to students in the first three years (fourth year students are mostly at remote clinics).  The presentations were made in the regularly scheduled class times through the generosity of the respective instructors in giving up some of their limited lecture time. Students responded with interest and many questions, including inquiries about how they could the training necessary to offer such service in their future practice.

By Dr. Patricia Fink; Burlington, Ontario

Dr. Glen (Bubba) Steele’s seminar “The Importance of Vision in Overall Development” was exceptionally well received at the office of Dr. Patricia Fink’s in Burlington, Ontario.  There were 26 optometrists in attendance from all over the province, most that are practising in-office vision therapy and a few that are passionate about infant vision (and had their minds expanded by the seminar, partly from the discussions with the VTODs and lecturer).

Dr. Steele was excellent in explaining how to appreciate the retinoscopy reflex and to show us how to look for more than with or against motion.  To be able to appreciate when a patient can attend by the colour of the reflex at near and to compare this reflex between the two eyes...well, Jennifer Braniff (Vision Therapist) had the best quote with “I want one of those (spot retinoscopes) in the VT room.”  Being able to perform accommodative facility testing while observing the reflex was astounding...to see the lead or lag of accommodation and to really “see” when the patient achieved “neutrality” and to “know” they were accommodating accurately and the response was objectively accurate...WOW.