Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board members and Friends,
Greetings from a soggy, cold Elkins Park. Most of you might have noticed I was not on campus for much of the week and I am writing this from home as I was one of the “lucky" recipients of the flu. Good news is I’m pretty much on the mend but didn’t want to risk spreading this around.
From our College of Education and Rehabilitation, Dr. Fabiana Perla presented a lecture at Moss Rehab’s Drucker Brain Injury Center Education Series entitled, “O&M Specialists: Who We Are, What We Do, and Why We Should Work Together.” The multidisciplinary audience included occupational, physical and speech-language pathology therapists and psychologists. Today Dr. Perla will be speaking at Penn State Abington to undergraduate students on "Regaining Mobility: Education and Rehabilitation for Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals." BLVS has an ongoing partnership with Penn State Abington's Electrical Engineering and Psychological and Social Sciences Departments.
Drs. Scharre and Vitek are off to Taiwan today where they will be meeting with representatives from the nation's only optometry school. The school is interested in pursuing our Master of Science in Clinical Optometry degree, so this is the next step to determine how best to facilitate this. From there they will head to Shanghai, China, via Japan, to celebrate the accomplishments of our growing Chinese alumni base and most recent graduates. I’m looking forward to joining them for the festivities in Shanghai next week.
As most of you know we’ve begun the search to find a new provost due to Dr. Scharre’s impending retirement. The search committee, under Dr. Mitchell Scheiman’s leadership, met for the first time this week and will now begin the process in earnest. Search firm, Issacson-Miller has been contracted to assist us in this most important endeavor. I will keep you updated as the process continues.
If you were on campus today and walked by the University's board room you might have noticed what looked like a radio show being produced. Well, if that’s what you thought, you were correct. Staffers from Executive Leadership Radio are on campus to produce a Salus-centric show featuring some of our Board of Trustee members to include Ms. Jane Scaccetti, Mr. Chris Dezzi and Mr. Chip Marshall. Also on the guest list is Richard DiPiano, Jr. son of Salus Board member Richard DiPiano, Sr. I am really disappointed that I couldn’t make it! As soon as we have the dates when this will be aired, we will share it with everyone.
As we approach the weekend, please continue to respect each other and take the time to spend with family and friends to reflect on all the good things that we have to be thankful for. For those studying for boards, keep at it!
Mike
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Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,
Happy Friday! November is very quickly passing before our eyes. Before we know it, we’ll be sitting around the table eating turkey and cranberry sauce. But, before we get there, there’s lots of great stuff to report that has been happening at Salus - on and off campus.
Our Looking Out for Kids charity fundraiser last Saturday evening was a huge success. We had almost 300 people in attendance at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, Pa. to help us raise money for the important task we conduct each academic year of providing comprehensive vision care to uninsured and under-insured children in the Philadelphia and Montgomery County schools. To all of you who helped organize, contribute to, or sponsor the event, thank you very much! Check out the event on NBC10!
This weekend, the University's Pennsylvania College of Optometry is hosting the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) Clinic Directors and Administrators Special Interest Group Workshop both in Center City and on our Elkins Park campus. I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Maria Parisi and Mr. John Gaal as well as their staff for taking the lead on organizing the three day workshop along with multiple events. About 120 people will participate in this very comprehensive and important workshop.
In the University's Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies, Drs. Fabiana Perla, director of the Orientation and Mobility program, and Yi Yang, an assistant professor at Penn State Abington have initiated a collaborative project. Faculty members are joined by three students in our Orientation and Mobility Program along with three graduate electrical engineering students from Penn State in a project to create an electronic travel device for individuals who are blind or have severe visual impairments. The Penn State team has been coming on campus for a series of instructional sessions on Fridays. We’re very excited about this work.
Faculty and students from the University's Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Audiology conference recently and while there, they honored Dr. Jim Zeigler, one of the college’s clinical preceptors, with the George S. Osborne Honors Award. The award, named for the founder of OCA, is presented to an outstanding Pennsylvania audiologist and advocate for their profession. Congratulations Dr. Zeigler!
This weekend, the Pennsylvania Optometric Association will be co-hosting a comprehensive continuing education event in Harrisburg as part of “Dr. Lombardi’s Final Tour.” This event is being held on Sunday, November 19 at the Best Western Premier/Central Hotel and Conference Center in Harrisburg, PA. Following the lectures, there will be a reception from 3:30-5:30 p.m. hosted by the Pennsylvania College of Optometry to celebrate Dr. Lombardi’s upcoming retirement. There will be food, drinks and sharing of memories. We hope to see many PCO alumni there!
Have a great weekend. I hope you can get out and enjoy this great fall weather before it starts to rain tomorrow.
