Busy Friday on Campus: Week of March 16th

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

Good morning from a sunny Elkins Park! No snow, no rain but a little wind and LOTS of potholes!  It’s been another busy week here at Salus so let me tell you some of the things that are going on:

Dr. Erin Kenny and TEI social worker, Jinnie Scott, were interviewed yesterday on WDAS about their work in Low Vision at our Feinbloom Center. It’s always great to be able to get the word out to the public about all the great things that we can offer Low Vision patients at pretty much any stage of their disease. Thanks to Dr. Kenny and Ms. Scott for waving the Salus flag!

Our annual alumni awards have been announced and I wanted to share that information with everyone. They are as follows:

• Albert Fitch Memorial Alumnus of the Year: David R. McPhillips, OD ’85
• Audiology Alumna of the Year: Angela M. Morris, AuD ’03
• Blindness and Low Vision Studies Alumna of the Year: Sister Lisa Ann Lettiere, IHM, MEd ’00, TVI, COMS
• Physician Assistant Alumna of the Year: Jennifer M. Heibel, MMS '15
• Distinguished Service Award: Lorraine Lombardi, PhD
• Special Recognition Award: Susan C. Oleszewski, OD ’76, MA, FAAO

Congratulations to all those who have been recognized by their peers.

Speaking of awards, Dr. Tom Lewis, Salus President Emeritus, was honored by the Review of Optometry as he received the 2018 Career Achievement Award while attending the Southeastern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO) in Atlanta, Ga. a couple of weeks ago. Congratulations Tom on this a well-deserved honor!

A reminder that today the Research Department will be hosting Research Symposium 11, featuring Andrea Tyszka, MS, OTR/L, SIPT and Fern Silverman, EdD, OTR/L. The title of today’s presentation is Community-based action research: Using evidence to support wellbeing for families with children who have sensory processing needs. The symposium is held from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the board room. Everyone is 
welcome to attend. 

The Speech-Language Institute have been regularly conducting brain injury screenings at TEI and “Raise Your Voice”, a newly created support group, will provide members of the transgender community the opportunity to practice techniques related to voice and other gender-specific communication skills on Saturday, March 17 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at the Speech-Language Institute. 

For the next couple of weeks, seven students from Finland, Sweden and Germany will be on campus to participate in a special posterior segment class. Please join me in welcoming these professionals to campus.

Today we will be holding a University Development Day in S300 from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., followed by a light reception in the Café. This was previously scheduled a couple of weeks ago but had to be rescheduled due to the snow storm. The topic for the day will be the ADA & the Accommodation Process at Salus, presented by Salome Heyward, Esq. who is an expert in the Americans with Disabilities Act, more commonly known as the ADA.  

Finally, many of us will be headed up to New York tomorrow to participate in Vision Expo East. We will be hosting an Alumni and Friends reception at the event which will be held from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. in the Javits Center, Room 1E13. If you’re at the meeting, please stop by and join us for some updates and refreshments. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and gets a chance to get outside and enjoy what looks like will be some nice weather.