Greetings from Jerusalem: Week of January 10th, 2020

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Greetings from a rainy, windy and cold Jerusalem where Dr. Vitek and I have been at Hadassah Academic College (HAC) providing lectures and workshops on Evidenced Based Practice, public and global health and leadership. It’s been a busy but very productive few days here in Israel. We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with HAC that will promote collaborations in many areas can benefit both their students and Salus, to include optometry, audiology and potentially clinical research. There likely will be other opportunities to work together, which we’re all very excited about.

Other than the weather, there has been little mention of current events in the Middle East while we’ve been here which is good! We both appreciated the messages we’ve received this week concerning the security situation, but all has been well - thank goodness! Since I’m 7 hours out of sync with everyone back home, I will send this out a bit off the normal routine schedule, since I head to the airport rather early tomorrow morning.

Last Monday morning was a special event for our Looking Out for Kids (LOFK) initiative. A local organization, Hogs & Honeys Foundation for Kids, recently initiated a partnership with us and as a result, LOFK received a $5,000 donation. Additionally, eye exams were conducted on the Big Red Bus for 19 students at Franconia Elementary School in Souderton Area School District in Montgomery County. Special thanks to Hogs & Honeys Foundation for their generosity and making that happen!

This week, our Admissions staff hit the deck running for the New Year with our first Optometry Learning Experience (OLE) of 2020. Our OLE program has run for over four decades now - allowing potential optometry students the opportunity to gain insight into the academic life of an optometry student here at Salus. I’d like to thank everyone who made this event possible and hope to see those students return to Salus in the future! If you know anyone who is looking to pursue optometry as a career and would like more information, have them visit salus.edu/OLE.

Next week we’ll be hosting State Senator Sharif Street at both The Eye Institute and the Elkins Park campus. We’re excited to show him the depth of training all of our professionals receive as well as the high-quality care we’re providing the community at The Eye, Pennsylvania Ear and Speech and Language Institutes. Senator Street’s district includes The Eye Institute and he serves as the Minority Chairman of the Senate Banking & Insurance Committee and also sits on the Appropriations, Agriculture & Rural Affairs, Health & Human Services, and Urban Affairs & Housing Committees. We’ll discuss scope of practice issues as well as our initiative to have the state designate a line item in the budget to help offset tuition for PA residents and the cost of indigent care with him.

I’d like to remind everyone of today’s (Friday’s) Dean’s Winterfest event, which will be held from 12:30 - 2:30 pm in the Hafter Center. This year’s theme is Winterfest en Blanc. The event will include free food, games, trivia, prizes, an ugly sweater contest, and much more.

Finally, I was sorry to see the Eagles exit the NFL playoffs so early but am still keeping my fingers crossed for the Packers this weekend! I hope everyone has a safe and restful weekend – I’m looking forward to getting back on campus Monday morning – hopefully, celebrating a Packers win!

Mike